Beijing Back to Campus Bulletin!
It’s been a few days now since the students have returned to campus. My school’s 12th graders and 9th graders (aka “Year 12” and “Year 9” for some odd Australian and/or Chinese reason) returned to the campus, a boarding school, on Sunday, 10 May 2020 and Monday, 11 May 2020, respectively. Classes began for Year 12 students on Monday, 11 May 2020 and Year 9 students on 12 May 2020.
This schedule required us teachers to be on the campus Sunday and Monday at 8:00 a.m. instead of 8:30 a.m. That part doesn’t bug me so much; what does is that we still stay until 5:30 p.m. each day. What I did appreciate this time, though, is the “Semester Opening Ceremony” (yeah, TIC*) was held with just select senior staff and teachers and all of the students during the student’s evening study hall time (7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.). The staff shuttle buses therefore ran their morning routes thirty minutes early.
Once departing the bus in the school parking lot, I noticed the line barriers (what are those thing called?) set up again. A couple of students were entering the campus and they had to do the same routine we staff did last week.
All classes are divided into two groups: Group A and Group B. Half the classes on each floor are in Group A, the other half in Group B. Group A classes begin at the normal times (8:30 a.m. for morning classes, 1:50 p.m. for afternoon classes) and last for forty-five minutes with a ten-minute break between classes. Group B’s classes begin at the same times, but the first class in the morning and the first class in the afternoon are fifty minutes long. This is to minimize the number of students in the hallways and restrooms during the break between classes. Every restroom on campus now had an occupancy limit clearly posted at the door. In addition to that, every other stall door is bolted shut and every other urinal is covered up. Some genius decided that the western style commode on the first floor male restroom is one of the stalls to be closed–I hope he falls into the squatter.
Each grade is now assigned a time to go the cafeteria (aka “canteen” for yet another Australian or Chinese reason). Before the pandemic, the students had the entire lunch break (12:00 noon to 1:50 p.m. for the students) to hang out and eat at any of the canteens on campus. Now they must be escorted by their grade’s senior teacher.
Students are no longer permitted in any of the teachers’ offices. If they need to use the restroom, only one student per class may go. (Reminds me of that character in Summer School who got the restroom key on the first day and returned it on the day of the final exam. Or was that Fast Times at Ridgemont High?) The form teachers are required to ensure no students are in the halls during classes.
In class, we teachers have been tasked with ensuring the students do not congregate closer than one meter to each other, and that they wear their masks properly instead of the usual Chinese practice of wearing it as a sort of fashion statement (not covering the nose or even the mouth). For Group B classes, those teachers are permitted to let the students have a rest in place for the extra five minutes of the first period in the morning and the first period in the afternoon. Personally, I think that Group A should have the normal times for the morning and the fifty-minute class in the afternoon, just to make it fair.
The school staff discovered that with all the social distancing and other pandemic prevention rules (“Pandemic prevention”? Apparently someone forgot that it’s already a pandemic now; we need to control it, not prevent it.) the students in one of the two departments in which I’m currently working simply do not have enough time to get to PE class, have PE class, clean up after PE class, and then get back to their classroom for their other subjects. This is because that department is further away from the gym than the other departments. The decision came down on Tuesday that the students in that department will all have PE in the final period in the afternoon. I suppose I should mention that there are four periods in the morning and four in the afternoon.
The students are again [del]herded[/del] escorted to dinner by their department’s head teacher and are turned over to the form teachers for study hall, and finally to the dorm teachers at 9:00 p.m. I have no idea what the new dormitory restrictions are so I cannot report on those.
The Beijing Municipal Education Commission and the Beijing CCP Education Committee have observers meandering around campus throughout the day to ensure the staff and students are following the new rules.
All of the above is for private boarding schools in the city. The training centers (“cram schools”/“afterschool academies”) are still closed.
For the public schools, the 12th graders returned a few days ealier, 27 April 2020. Their campuses have similar markings and signages throughout the campus but their control procedures are more strict. The students are stuck in the classroom for the duration of the day. During their ten-minute break, they get to rest in place. There is no leaving the classroom until lunchtime and then when it’s time to go home. I do not know if they get escorted to the cafeteria for lunch or if the food is brought to their classrooms.
The really big news was announced yesterday by the Beijig Municipal Education Commission! The other grades, except for first, second, and third grades, are returning to campus per the following schedule:
The very important announcement over the commission’s official WeChat account is that the summer holiday will not be postponed. I was very excited to read that, but I still have my doubts about it for the private schools. Anyway, so long as the borders are closed to foreigners retrurning, that might not be such a big issue for us foreigners in country.
A number of foreign teachers at my school and, of course, at others are not in China now for the aforementioned ban. Some of those teachers are stranded in locales where they can neither return to China nor get to their home countries. On the foreign teachers’ WeChat group, someone stated that some teachers were told those whose contracts end this semester will not be renewed. Note that I have heard nothing from administration or senior management on that nor anything official; it’s just something one of those out-of-country teachers stated in the group.
If true, I guess I can see the school’s side, but at the same time, it’s really looks like abandonding somene especially if that person is stranded elsewhere and has been doing the job online as directed. If not true, that’s good news for those folks.
Speaking of contracts ending in July, mine does. I’ve already asked my department head what’s going on with that. I guess I just have to be patient. That’s getting very difficult the longer my wife is stuck oustide of the country! Oh, and her visa, just like mine, expires 31 July 2020. Actually, there’s a possibility that her visa may be void because it was issued last year. I guess we’ll discover what’s going on with that when and if China cancels the ban on foreigners returning.
I think I did not make any spelling or grammar errors in this post. I do not mind if you find any and let me know I made such errors.
*TIC = This Is China.
