Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Schools gear up for H1N1 fight

By Jessica Yeo/Valarie Tan, Channel NewsAsia Posted: 24 June 2009 2109 hrs

SchoolsGearUpForH1N1 SINGAPORE: More schools are following the Education Ministry's health guidelines in light of the current H1N1 situation in Singapore.

Schools like Mercu Learning Point have taken steps to clean up their premises and will set up temperature-taking stations when school reopens next Monday.

They say that they will also minimise group outings, monitor hygiene levels and prevent large numbers of people from congregating.

Apart from complying with MOE's guidelines, Mercu Learning Point also has a crisis management team which has been around since the SARS period.

It comprises the External Liaison Team which helps get more information on H1N1, the Service Recovery Team which liaises with the parents and the Health Management Team which does the cleaning and deals with isolating its students.

Meanwhile Republic Polytechnic will implement one week of home-based e-learning for all its Year One students starting Thursday. It is estimated that some 4,500 students will be affected. Republic Polytechnic have nine confirmed H1N1 cases.

Nanyang Polytechnic will kick off its one-week home-based e-learning coming Monday when the new school term begins. Common tests planned for this period have also been rescheduled. Lecturers will be contactable via email and phone.

Nanyang Poly says this will apply to all 15,000 students, except those doing their Final-Year Project and Teaching Enterprise Project and those who are on Industrial Attachment, clinical practice and taking Continuing Education and Training courses.

It says this is a precautionary measure and not a direct response to confirmed H1N1 cases on campus.

Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Singapore Polytechnic and Temasek Polytechnic say they have no plans to implement e-learning for now.

Some foreign students and workers living in dormitories are also taking precautionary measures against H1N1.

One student hostel in Jurong, for example, has set up two isolation rooms. The hostel is home to some 1,800 students from 23 countries.

Residents are also required to take their body temperatures when they return to the hostel.

Meanwhile the operator of a foreign workers dormitory has printed H1N1 advisory posters in six languages for its 12,000 residents.

If there is an outbreak of H1N1 cases, unaffected workers will be relocated to another dormitory.

- CNA/ir 

From ChannelNewsAsia.com; see the source article here.

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