- Tests for older students will end on March 1, but the rule to remain for primary schools, preschools and special schools until at least March 15
- Spokeswoman for exams authority says it will continue monitoring the pandemic to implement arrangements for this year’s university entrance exam
Hong Kong secondary schools are to drop daily coronavirus rapid antigen tests, starting from next week. Photo: ShutterstockSecondary schools in Hong Kong will no longer be required to conduct daily rapid antigen tests (RAT) for the coronavirus from next Wednesday.
But the rule would remain for primary schools, preschools and special schools at least until March 15, said education authorities on Tuesday.
The Education Bureau confirmed the relaxation of test requirements in circulars sent to schools. “For the arrangements thereafter, the bureau will review the situation and make timely announcements,” it said.
Primary schools, kindergartens and special schools should continue to collect RAT results that were positive from all pupils each morning and report them to the government, it added.
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Daily RAT tests for students at all levels were introduced beginning in April after half-day, face-to-face classes were allowed, and they were required to show a negative result before being allowed onto campus.
The bureau last month announced teachers and other school staff would no longer be required to conduct RAT tests for themselves, effective January 30, although students still were required to do so.
Lin Chun-pong, chairman of the Hong Kong Association of the Heads of Secondary Schools, said it was an appropriate time for the bureau to drop the RAT rule as the pandemic had stabilised.
Tang Fei, a secondary school principal and lawmaker, said the requirement should have been scrapped earlier as the Covid-19 vaccination rate among secondary school students was already high enough and a number of them had also been infected.
“I think the requirement for primary school and kindergarten [students] to undergo RAT should also be lifted in mid-March as Hong Kong returns to full normalcy,” he said.
Tang also expressed hope that education authorities would review remaining social-distancing measures in schools, such as the rules on seating arrangements in classrooms, as well as ventilation and other requirements for assemblies.
The lawmaker said he had heard the RAT requirement for the candidates sitting this year’s university entrance exam, the Diploma of Secondary Education, would also be lifted.
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A spokeswoman for the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority said it would continue to closely monitor the development of the pandemic and work with the bureau and the school sector, with reference to the advice of the health experts, to implement appropriate arrangements. An announcement would be made in due course, she added.
Chu Kwok-keung, a primary school head and the lawmaker for the education functional constituency, said he supported scrapping the RAT arrangements for kindergartens, primary and special schools from mid-March, as there was no point in keeping the measure and the government should be “fair” to all schools
He also backed the idea of dropping most remaining anti-epidemic measures in schools.
“Students are now taking off their masks during lunch, and partitions are no longer installed,” he said. “Most of the other measures were already obsolete.”