Schools to re-open as scheduled despite H1N1

Full news coverage from CNA here:

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/437803/1/.html up


I was so disappointed when I read this damned article. It crushed all my hopes for a week of holidays school closure after June ends...

Obviously most students would love to have school closure due to personal reasons of sloth, but seriously, the higher authorities should consider re-opening schools at later dates because I desperately need extra time to complete my homework and also for the fun I've been missing out and because I don't want to see the teachers who have been the root of all our problems of stress and because I am not prepared for the next big marathon of tests and EOYs. due to the surging numbers of local infection cases. There are currently over 160 cases of H1N1 in S'pore and by the end of this week, it would most probably hit over 250. Schools would only help to facilitate the transmission of the virus at a more rapid pace when both students and staff congregate in the campus. It is inevitable that infection via cluster circulation would have a dramatic increase by then. Though it is true that death rate is low, this does not imply that life is then able to 'continue as normally as possible'. H1N1 is able to hinder people from leading a normal lifestyle due to its effects on health. It isn't just H1N1 actually. As long as you contract an illness, you would very unlikely be a productive individual. Now, the main problem is that more and more Singaporeans are being infected with the virus, which would in turn negatively affect S'pore's progress as a country if infection rate continues to rise over the next few months.

It is true that declaring school closure would result in a potential academic loss for schools to inflict pain on students to finish the syllabus on time, teaching and carrying out revision to prepare students for the EOYs. In my opinion, however, it is better to spare a week for quarantine purposes. The loss would be much greater by the time more of their students are infected by H1N1. This is not a light matter, really.