All schools nationwide, including public and private kindergartens, are to suspend in-person instruction from today until Friday next week, the Ministry of Education announced yesterday.
The measure is being taken to reduce the risk of COVID-19 cluster infections, the ministry said in a statement.
Centers providing after-school childcare services, cram schools and other educational institutions must also suspend classes during that period, it said.
Photo: Yu Chao-fu, Taipei Times
Schools are to shift to online teaching, with students engaging in remote learning at home, the ministry said.
There would be no makeup classes over the summer vacation, it said.
Local governments would help students borrow the resources they need, while schools would lend equipment such as laptops and tablets to students and teachers without access to those devices, the ministry said, adding that students from disadvantaged backgrounds would be given priority.
As a general rule, faculty and staff would still work at the school, but schools can arrange for those conducting online teaching to do so from school or home depending on resources, the ministry said.
Parents who need to care for a child under the age of 12 or a child with a documented disability who is attending junior-high or high school, or in the first three years of a five-year junior college program, can apply for “disease prevention childcare leave,” the ministry said.
If the parents of a student below high-school level are unable to be at home to take care of them, or if a student is unable to learn from home, schools should arrange for people to provide the student with the ability to study and eat, and be taken care of, at school, it said.
Local governments should provide food for disadvantaged students below high-school level during the period of online learning, it added.
Local governments and schools are to set up helplines to offer parents and teachers advice and assistance during the online learning period, and to monitor the health of students learning from home, the ministry said.
As of Monday, 37 students — 16 college students, four high-school students, six junior-high students, seven elementary school students and four kindergarten students — had tested positive for COVID-19, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the Central Epidemic Command Center, said at the center’s daily news conference in Taipei yesterday.
The nationwide suspension of all in-person instruction comes after Taipei and New Taipei City on Monday announced that public and private junior-high and high schools, vocational high schools, elementary schools, kindergartens, after-school care centers and cram schools would be closed from yesterday to Friday next week.
A level 3 COVID-19 alert in the two cities is in effect until Friday next week.
Additional reporting by CNA
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