Five more Koreans died from the influenza A virus over the weekend, raising the country's death toll to 40. Since the first local outbreak in May, the new flu has forced the temporary closure of schools and delayed public gatherings. More than 400 schools across the country remain closed as the new flu is highly contagious among children.
The guidelines say if more than two classes in a certain grade are closed, all students in the same year must stay at home. If more than two grades of students have their classes suspended, the school is allowed to shutdown.
Also, if a district has over 30 percent of its schools close because of the flu, all schools in the district can be closed after Seoul's top educator discusses the matter with school headmasters, parents' groups and health authorities there.
Elementary schools and kindergartens can close their doors for up to seven days, while middle and high schools can close for a maximum of five days.
However, kindergartens and schools that have students vulnerable to the virus, including disabled children, can suspend a class even when they don't meet the guidelines. "Ordinary schools as well don't need to necessarily follow the guidelines. Closure of schools is possible depending on the decision of headmasters or school boards," said an official from the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education. Schools have also been ordered to cancel or delay any kind of social events. In addition, the education office plans to tightly supervise private cram schools or hagwon.
For more information about swine flu and schools, read through a couple recent posts:
* "Hagwon, more public schools, to close?"A lot of interesting comments on both threads, and some excerpts from posts on Dave's ESL Cafe about what's going on in individual schools. From Gordana on Dave's ESL Cafe:
* "More cases of swine flu, more deaths."
According to my co-teacher, yesterday we had 80 students absent - 7 of whom have been diagnosed with swine flu.
Today the Principal instructed all teachers to have classroom windows open so that any dirty germs will 'fly away' rather than linger and infect.
It was freeeeezing.
From i:
Today at my school in Yongin there was an announcement that 3 or 4 students possibly have it. About 5 mins later, a couple guys with a hose came in, evacuated the classrooms and sprayed some fog in the classes. We were told we could return in 10 mins. Come back and have to breathe in that crap for another hour. Everyone was coughing and had a dry throat from that fog. Told my co-teacher they need to spray the students, not the rooms. Shortly thereafter, several students took off and returned with masks from the nurses office.
From smajk710:
The flu is also spreading like wild fire with 9 confirmed cases of H1N1. The school has been sending home students who have 38.0 c temps or above but if a students returns back to school, we must let them. The Principal said that all students have a right to attend classes and we can't make them stay home even if they're sick. We already had angry parents call the school because their daughter or son was sent home. Most of them sent their children back to school.
From JJJ:
We have confirmed swine flu cases at our school who are still showing up at school....unbelievable
From Suwon4AGT:
Still only one case of the swine flu at my kindie/elem hagwon, but the director chose to close the morning sessions until she can get all of the kids their flu shots. Unfortunately, this may not happen for several weeks. I'm glad for the half days for a while, but I fear there's a decent chance of a salary cut or possible termination, let alone losing my vacation time.
While this puts me in a scary situation (with only 4 months to go on my contract), I am proud of my director for being pro-active and doing the right thing for the kids.
4 comments:
"Under the guidelines, which were made with the help of medical experts, principals at elementary and secondary schools in Seoul can decide to close a class when 10 percent of its students are confirmed to have contracted the new flu virus or 25 percent are suspected of having been infected."
I'd be interested in knowing the actual wording in Korean - "can" sounds optional, and lots of principals probably wouldn't. On the other hand, if two classes are closed, they "must" close the rest of the grade? By these standards, if can = must, my main school should definitely have been closed last week.
My school's being moderately cautious. I had sinus problems yesterday. That always happens when the temperature drops so rapidly. No fever, though, so no worries. A bit of nose spray and hey presto. And my girlfriend got a cold (but not swine flu).
So far, I've heard one kid was sent home with probably more today. There were a few more empty chairs this morning. Then two teachers in my office got confirmed cases, one having to go home after second period. The other hasn't been in this week. As a precaution, they sent me home for two days, returning on Friday to my other country school.
But how's this? My office is in the campus attached to my main school, and it was two campus teachers who got SF. So I'm at home, while the other two campus teachers have stayed on, ready to be there for the after school classes.
To clarify: The other two remaining teachers in my office have stayed on for this afternoon's after school program.
PS The next few days, for wont of a better word, could prove very interesting.
PPS I think there's being waaaaay to much hoo har over all this, but if it means Koreans (and especially kids) get into the habit of washing their hands more, and coughing and sneezing on others less, then I'm all for a bit of national, er, concern.
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