Tuition centres move classes online ahead of schedule
Though they still have two days, many have already gone online to protect their students and staff
Many tuition centres have either already moved their lessons online or will do so today, two days before they must do so.
Last night, Education Minister Chan Chun Sing announced that primary schools, secondary schools, tuition centres and enrichment centres will have to move lessons online or suspend activities, in line with the decision for schools to shift to home-based learning.
It comes after a sharp increase in the number of community cases recently, as well as a spike in unlinked cases yesterday.
Several pupils have been testing positive for the coronavirus, with many linked to the cluster at Learning Point tuition centre in Parkway Centre.
Yesterday, nine more people, including four primary school pupils, were added to that cluster, taking its total cases to 18.
Many tuition centres that The New Paper spoke to over the weekend said they made the decision to move online following the tightened safe management measures announced last week and MOE's recent guidelines, which they believe is necessary to safeguard their students and educators.
A spokesman for Aspire Hub Education's United Square branch told TNP it offered physical classes as a choice for the weekend and will move all classes online from today.
Parents applauded the move.
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Madam May Chen, who has a 10-year-old son and two daughters, aged seven and three, said she was glad when her son's tuition centre Mind Stretcher announced on Saturday that it will be moving classes online from today.
Madam Chen, 35, founder of Chinese-language parenting information platform sghotmoms, said: "With many confirmed cases in different schools, tuition and enrichment centres have high chances of spreading the virus due to intermingling of students.
"Kids are vulnerable and should avoid the risk."
Associate Professor Hsu Li Yang, an infectious diseases expert at the National University of Singapore's Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, said while there is a trade-off in terms of effectiveness of teaching, tuition centres' transition to online teaching is a good move and will help to minimise the potential spread of the virus.
He said: "Tuition centre outbreaks are of concern because of the potential for spread.
"Both teachers and students generally have extensive networks in addition to families and friends - the teachers teach multiple classes a day while the students may have more than one tuition class which may be at different centres."
Prof Hsu added that classes should remain online as much as possible, at least until the current restrictions are relaxed.
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