When Hong Kong Still Holds School Examinations In Pandemic Times

Ilustrasi foto (Xin Wang/Unsplash)

JAKARTA - The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong since late January has forced shops to close most schools. As a result, thousands of Senior High School (SMA) students postponed their final exams to follow the recommendation to stay at home in order to implement physical distancing.

After waiting for a long time, the policy owner finally allowed students in Hong Kong to take their final school exams on Friday, April 24. According to Reuters, it was noted that more than three thousand students have now taken the final exams in their entirety.

In another batch that will be held in the following month, there will be around 52 thousand students who are ready to take the final exam. It is the first time that thousands of students in Hong Kong have returned to school after being at home for so long.

Therefore, for the sake of safety so as not to catch COVID-19, the government urges students not to forget to wear a mask and have their temperature checked.

Therefore, students are asked to arrive early to check body temperature. The rest, the school does not only require the use of masks. They also provide hand sanitizers at every corner of the school and make a distance of about two meters between tables to maintain physical distancing.

"Even though it is relatively dangerous to start exams for us at this point, perhaps all exams will be completely canceled if they don't take place now," said 19-year-old Clementi High School student Emily Chui before going to the exam room.

Not only Emily, several other students were still not so sure that the exam would be safe. This is because Hong Kong is still reporting new cases of COVID-19 transmission to this day.

"It looks like we are risking our lives through the final exams for a seat at the university. And we don't even know if we will make it," said 18-year-old student Rita Hung.

Meanwhile, so far Hong Kong has confirmed 1,036 cases of COVID-19 transmission. Among them, there were four cases who died.