Local authorities and education agencies are now checking schools’ preparedness to implement COVID-19 precautionary measures, during the new school year starting on 1st July to ensure the health and safety of students.
In Bangkok, a Deputy Governor of Bangkok, Krengyos Sudlapa inspected Wat Phraya Siri Aiya Sawan School in Bang Phlat district, which is a small 100-student school in the northern Thonburi side of Bangkok, providing classes from Kindergarten Year 1 to Primary Year 6.
The school director Sayaporn Kraiserm said the school has prepared measures which will be implemented from day one, by allowing only parents to send off their children at the school’s gate, temperature screening of all students, arranging tables in classrooms in a staggered layout, with partitions and name labels attached to each table. Students will need to provide their own personal stationery.
Nap time for young students will still be offered, but the bedding will be placed with a safe distance between each child.
Deputy Governor Krengyos is satisfied with the school’s preparedness, and has urged the school to constantly promote good hygiene practices including frequent hand washing and the wearing of face masks among young children, adding that young children may switch to wearing a face shield instead temporarily, if they are not comfortable with a mask.
Moving to Saraburi, officials from Wihan Daeng Subdistrict Municipality and a local nursery, dressed up in hero costumes and made house visits to meet children and their parents at home, providing them with preparations for the new school year in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as exercises for children to practice before their school’s reopening.
The Young Children’s Development Center in Wihan Daeng provides daytime care for pre-school children, considered a population group susceptible to COVID-19 infection.(NNT)