Debated in Parliament on 5 Oct 2020.
Ms Foo Mee Har asked the Minister for Education whether the Ministry will consider allowing Universities and schools to return to more normalised face-to-face activities and classes when TraceTogether tokens are in widespread use with safe distancing measures in place.
Mr Speaker, students from all levels have resumed daily lessons in our schools. Lower-risk co-curricular activities or CCAs and other activities have also resumed. Likewise, the Institutes of Higher Learning or IHLs have gradually increased the number of students allowed back on campus for practicums, laboratory sessions and other classes. They are progressively allowing selected non-timetabled activities to return to campus, including project discussions and some student activities.
We now have effective Safe Management Measures in place in our schools and IHLs, coupled with a system of rapid contact tracing. We have also improved capabilities to detect community cases quickly through our expanded testing regime and are exploring the monitoring of wastewater in student hostels.
With these conditions in place, we are now studying ways to resume more in-person activities safely in our schools and IHLs, as the Member has suggested. These activities, together with the resumption of a wider range of CCAs and other activities, are important because we must strive to provide our students with a holistic educational experience, while keeping risks to a manageable level. MOE is working through the details and will share more in due course.
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