With the exception of Xinjiang, all or some prefectures and cities in 30 provinces in mainland China have set the start time for fall school. Primary and secondary schools and kindergartens in various regions will start school around September 1. Colleges and universities will start from late August to September in batches according to new and old students, different grades, and different regions. Of the 75 colleges and universities directly under the Ministry of Education, 49 have the first batch of students to return to school before the end of August, 24 have the first batch of students to return to school in early September, and 2 have the first batch of students to return to school in mid to late September.
What to do if there is a sudden outbreak in autumn? Will online education become the norm? What about myopia in online classes? Can I leave Beijing on Mid-Autumn Festival? The Ministry of Education held a press conference on the 27th to introduce the situation of school epidemic prevention and control and education and teaching in the fall semester of 2020, and respond to relevant hot spots.
Ministry of Education press conference site
How to prevent the risks of the fall and winter epidemic when students return to school on a large scale?
China has nearly 300 million students of all levels and types. With so many students returning to school, some have to get along day and night and live together 24 hours a day. Brings no small challenges to the prevention and control of the autumn and winter epidemic.
Wang Dengfeng, Director of the Office of the Leading Group for the Response to the New Coronary Pneumonia Epidemic of the Ministry of Education and Director of the Department of Sports, Health and Art Education, said at a press conference of the Ministry of Education on the 27th that this fall semester is in a special period under normalized epidemic prevention and control. The most important task of the national education system is to scientifically plan and arrange the start of school in the fall and the prevention and control of the epidemic in the fall and winter. The Ministry of Education requires that schools start safely, normally and fully.
"Safe start" requires all localities and schools to strictly implement epidemic prevention and control measures and requirements, combined with the local epidemic prevention and control situation and the actual situation of the school, to coordinate the start of the fall semester and epidemic prevention and control work to ensure the health of teachers and students and campus safety.
"Normal opening of school" requires that under the premise of strictly implementing prevention and control measures, the order of education and teaching should be restored to normal curriculum arrangements, normal classroom learning, and normal campus life.
"Full school opening" requires that all regions, schools, grades, and classes fully restore the order of education and teaching under the premise of meeting the conditions for school opening.
It is reported that all localities and relevant universities strictly implement the requirements of "anti-import, anti-rebound, anti-emergency and anti-slack" and make full preparations before the start of school. Strictly prevent and control the summer epidemic.
Military training, summer camps, social practice and other gathering activities will be suspended during the summer vacation in Beijing and Shanghai. Yunnan and Guangxi regard schools in border areas as the top priority of the campus epidemic prevention and control work, and do a good job of classified management of personnel.
Shandong implements relatively closed campus management, strengthens the verification, registration and management of foreign sales and delivery personnel, reasonably sets up express delivery points, and delimits campus activity routes. Wuhan University has established a student health monitoring network, and implemented the morning and afternoon inspection system, the classroom attendance system, and the late roll call system.
Chongqing University requires teachers, students and employees who come from or travel through the middle and high-risk areas within 14 days to report with a negative nucleic acid test certificate within 7 days before coming to Chongqing; if it is unable to provide it, nucleic acid testing shall be carried out in the school's centralized isolation observation area after arriving in Chongqing. Strengthen the daily management of the campus.
The Ministry of Education requires that in accordance with the principles of "wrong area, wrong level, wrong time, wrong peak" and "local coordination", the school will be carefully arranged for the start of the 2020 fall semester, so as to fully restore normal education and teaching order. Establish and improve the joint epidemic prevention and control mechanism, do a good job in epidemic prevention material storage and campus environmental sanitation rectification, and "one person, one file" to formulate information accounts for returning students. Strict daily management, strict control of school gates, strict activity control, and strengthening of epidemic prevention and control and safety management in key places such as classrooms, canteens, dormitories, and laboratories.
On August 24, at Fengtai Experimental School affiliated to Beijing Institute of Education, faculty and staff adjusted the seat spacing in the classroom and strictly maintained the one-meter distance between the desks in preparation for the start of the new semester. Photo by China News Agency reporter Zhang Xinglong
Are online courses still necessary?
Due to the special situation of the epidemic in this spring semester, all ordinary undergraduate colleges and universities across the country implemented online teaching, 1.08 million teachers offered 1.1 million courses, a total of 17.19 million courses; 22.59 million college students participated in online learning, a total of 3.5 billion people.
Are online courses still necessary after returning to school in the fall? Wu Yan, director of the Department of Higher Education of the Ministry of Education, said that the education and teaching work in the autumn semester of colleges and universities should grasp three points: First, the teaching mode of colleges and universities will be shifted from online teaching in the first half of the year to offline teaching. At the same time, actively promote the integration of online and offline teaching; second, practical teaching such as classroom theory teaching, school experimental teaching, and on- and off-campus internship training will be fully implemented; third, for the emergence of a single school epidemic or multiple areas For epidemics that occur in schools, relevant colleges and universities should promptly convert offline teaching to a combination of online and offline teaching or comprehensively to online teaching according to the situation. Colleges and universities in various places must adhere to the principle of focusing on safety and epidemic prevention on the one hand and education and teaching on the other, and transform the "freshness" of online teaching in wartime into the "new normal" of Chinese higher education.
On the basis of the comprehensive restoration of normal education and teaching in the field of basic education, online education and teaching will also be vigorously strengthened. Lu Yugang, Director of the Department of Basic Education of the Ministry of Education, said that in order to consolidate the results of the “stop classes without suspension” in the spring semester, the Ministry of Education has organized and systematically developed more than 4,000 autumn semester course resources covering all grades and disciplines, and organized the selection of various courses. Such high-quality thematic educational resources will continue to be broadcast online through the national primary and secondary school network cloud platform and China Education Television Station for free use in various regions, achieving a comprehensive upgrade from "emergency plans" to "fine courses" during the epidemic.
At the same time, the Ministry of Education will also jointly deploy a special network environment governance action with relevant departments, focusing on rectifying problems such as bad online social behavior, vulgar and harmful information, and indulging in online games that affect the healthy growth of minors, and clean up illegal and harmful information on social online courses platforms. Purify the network environment for the healthy growth of young people.
On August 27, Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province, school-age teenagers and children were accompanied by their parents to undergo an entrance examination to welcome the upcoming semester. Photo by China News Agency reporter Wei Liang
What should I do if my eyesight declines due to more online classes?
During the first half of this year due to the epidemic, most students spent more time watching videos. Coupled with the reduction in outdoor activities and physical exercise time, their vision and health were affected. This is a concern for many parents.
The Ministry of Education conducted a survey on the visual changes of elementary, junior, and high school students in 9 provinces (regions, cities) during the epidemic, and the results were not optimistic. The myopia rate of the surveyed primary and middle school students increased by 11.7% in half a year. Among them, the myopia rate of primary school students increased by 15.2%, junior high school students increased by 8.2%, and high school students increased by 3.8%.
"That is to say, elementary schools have increased the fastest, junior high schools have a lot less, and high schools have the lowest. This is also clear to everyone, because the base of high schools is already very high and there is not much room for improvement. The base of junior high schools is also very high, and there is room for improvement. It’s not that big. The rise in primary schools is the fastest.” Wang Dengfeng explained.
The detection rate of myopia for 1 hour of online classes per day is 45.8%, 1 hour to 2.5 hours is 49.3%, 2.5 to 4 hours is 62.4%, and more than 4 hours is 76.7%.
For non-learning purposes, the myopia detection rate of not more than 1 hour, 1 to 2.5 hours, 2.5 to 4 hours, and more than 4 hours is 50%, 58%, 63% and 73%, respectively.
Wang Dengfeng said that after the beginning of the new semester, the length of online learning should be controlled. In principle, no more than two hours in elementary school, no more than three hours in junior high school, and no more than four hours in high school. At the same time, schools in various places have also issued different regulations on carrying and using mobile phones during school. In addition, it is necessary to strengthen physical exercise and insist on outdoor activities and physical exercise for one hour a day.
The government has taken the youth myopia rate as an important indicator of local government performance evaluation. "The effect of taking measures and not taking measures, doing it seriously and not doing it seriously, managing seriously and not being restrained, is completely different, so there is a lot of room for work in this area," said Wang Dengfeng.
The picture shows students of Beijing University of Chemical Technology eating in the cafeteria. Photo by China News Agency reporter Tomita
Can Eleventh University students leave school?
Recently, online college students have some comments on the closed management of individual universities. Wang Dengfeng said that after the start of the fall semester of colleges and universities, the management of school gates has indeed been very hotly discussed on the Internet recently. In the "Technical Plan for the Prevention and Control of Epidemics in the Fall Semester of Higher Education Institutions" jointly issued by the Ministry of Education and the Health and Health Commission, clear requirements have been made: First, the school gate must be strictly controlled, that is, all people entering and leaving the school gate must be strictly controlled. Check identity, check body temperature, and register. Second, teachers and students are required not to go out unless necessary, and try to make their study and living space fixed. At the same time, do not participate in some gathering activities, especially places with poor air circulation, and try not to go as much as possible.
"I have seen some comments that teachers and even other workers can freely enter and exit the school gate, but students are subject to many restrictions." Wang Dengfeng said that students should follow the principle of "not going out if necessary," and teachers and other personnel should also follow this The principle is just that in management, because it is divided into categories, there may be information asymmetry problems, so there will be some misunderstandings.
Regarding whether to wear masks, Beijing requires universities, middle schools and primary schools to wear masks after school starts. In the technical plan of the Ministry of Education and the Health and Health Commission, after the fall semester of colleges, middle schools and primary schools, including kindergartens, it is not necessary to wear masks in schools. "Of course, there are many prerequisites, including the management of school gates. The gates of middle and elementary schools should be relatively closed. Management, colleges and universities are strictly managed and registered.” Wang Dengfeng said.
“Beijing’s requirements in this regard are clearer and more specific than our technical solutions.” Wang Dengfeng said, “We encourage all localities to follow their own actual conditions, the requirements of the epidemic prevention and control situation, and the environment, The elements of epidemic prevention and control in various aspects, such as geographical location and personnel movement, are added or reduced on the basis of the technical plan, and the standards and requirements that meet the local, school and individual epidemic prevention and control are proposed. We also hope that this work will be carried out in various places Under the leadership of the party committee and government, in accordance with the principles of territorial management, they can make proper disposals."
Regarding the issue of whether to leave school during the 11th holiday, Wang Dengfeng said that the management of entering and leaving the school gate during the 11th holiday is the same as on Saturdays, Sundays, and after class. For example, colleges and universities in Beijing must hold a valid nucleic acid test certificate within seven days before students return to school. If they leave the campus on October 11 and go to another place, they may have to perform such a procedure when they return. All schools and places make reasonable arrangements according to the current requirements for epidemic prevention and control.
"We do not encourage'one size fits all', but every prevention and control measure must be in place. The string of epidemic prevention and control cannot be loosened." Wang Dengfeng said, "We have made some management regulations and requirements for epidemic prevention and control. One needs to adapt to local conditions, and all of us may have to understand and accept, so as to achieve the goal of not only controlling the epidemic but also ensuring the normal order of education and teaching."
Author: Ma Haiyan