As Hong Kong schools close again, frazzled parents go back to juggling jobs, monitoring kids’ online lessons
- Teachers deal with online teaching challenges too, finding ways to keep students attentive amid Covid-19 pandemic
- Stress levels rise as parents devise ways to supervise schoolwork, attend office meetings
It means supervising their children doing schoolwork over tablet computers, monitoring them via WhatsApp text messages, or leaning more on domestic workers to share the load.
Stay-at-home mother Wong Shui-ying, 43, says her 10-year-old daughter and seven-year-old son get frustrated being confined to their 300 square foot flat in a public housing estate in Sham Shui Po, and her daughter’s schoolwork suffers when she stays home.
“I would like the kids to go to school,” she says. “I am not that worried about the coronavirus, because I think their school does a good job cleaning the premises.”
Hong Kong schools were first shut in early February after Covid-19 struck the city, then reopened in June. When a third wave of infections arrived in July, they were closed once again before reopening in September.
With a fourth wave now upon the city, all kindergartens, primary and secondary schools have been closed once again until next year.
