School Starts September 23

Hong Kong students can finally start the academic year in late September

The Hong Kong government has finally announced that schools will resume face-to-face classes in phases starting on September 23.

In a press conference today, Secretary for Education Kevin Yeung Yun-hung said students entering Primary Five, Primary Six, Form Five and Form Six, as well as those starting primary or secondary school, and final-year kindergarten pupils, will be the first to return to class.

Yeung said the pandemic situation was improving

Then on September 29, those pupils in Form Two to Form Four, Primary Two to Primary Four, and kindergarten children in K1 and K2 will return to the classroom.

He said this as Hong Kong recorded nine new coronavirus cases today to a total of 4,810.

Yeung said students who needed make-up classes could do so from September 15-22, provided the number of students did not exceed one-sixth of the student population.

"As the local pandemic situation improved recently, we believe it is now suitable to allow schools to start preparing to resume face-to-face classes in phases from late September," he said.

International schools will follow a similar schedule.

If teachers or students are infected with the virus, individual schools may close, following consultation with the Centre for Health Protection.

Will this be what a classroom looks like next month?

Again like other government officials, Yeung used the opportunity to encourage everyone to participate in the community-wide testing that starts tomorrow and over 500,000 people have registered online.

But if students are allowed to go back to school on September 23, why can't Hongkongers vote in the Legislative Council election? Even Yeung admits the pandemic situation has improved.

It is more and more obvious why the election was "postponed"...