Debated in Parliament on 10 Nov 2016.
Mr Darryl David asked the Minister for Education (Schools) what is the Ministry's policy regarding (i) students who are injured on school premises and (ii) students who are injured in the course of training for, or participating in, a CCA representing the school.
Madam, the safety and well-being of all our students are of paramount importance. Schools do their due diligence to ensure their activities and activity venues are safe so as to minimise the risk of injury. Schools proactively perform regular checks on building infrastructure and equipment to ensure they are safe and teach students safety-related skills. For example, for physical and sports activities, students are taught to follow rules of the game, wear proper attire, and techniques to jump and land safely.
If a student sustains light injury, staff trained in First Aid will render assistance. If medical treatment is required, the school will seek parental consent to send the student to a nearby clinic or the parents may prefer to do so themselves. For serious injury, the school will call an ambulance to send the student to the nearest hospital and inform the parents.
All our students are covered by Student Accident Protection Plans purchased by the schools to cover medical expenses incurred.
I thank the Parliamentary Secretary for his answer. It is great to know that the welfare of our students are taken care of. I just have two supplementary questions, Mdm Speaker. One of them is how comprehensive is this insurance coverage for the students and is this coverage portable and is it, perhaps, extended up to a certain period of time?
The reason why I ask the Parliamentary Secretary is because, say, in a scenario where a student is in the last year of his time with the school, perhaps, Secondary 4 or Junior College 2 before they move on to the next level of their education, should they suffer bad injury like breaking their leg while playing football for the school, and then this injury may take some time to heal – there may be follow-up operation, complications that may take a year or a year and a half later – does the insurance plan that the MOE may have for the student then cover him or her, even though they may have left the particular MOE school and moved on to the next course of their life?
Madam, I thank the Member for the question. I would like to assure the Member that we will do our best to assist our students. Like what I have said, the safety and well-being of all our students are of paramount importance.
What happens is that if there are injuries sustained while the students are, let us say, doing the CCAs, we will work with the student to see how we can facilitate; one aspect is in terms of getting treatment. The other aspect is to see how we can work with the insurance companies to look through and journey with the students on the process of the claims and how this process of recovery can be made together.
Nevertheless, each case is unique on its own. I would like to urge the Member, if he has any cases which are unique and need MOE, and as far as the insurance coverage is concerned, to look at it deeper, you can flag out to us. We will certainly look at it and see how we can assist the student.
Mdm Speaker, may I ask the hon Parliamentary Secretary whether injuries sustained by students – as a result interactions between students, as opposed to school activities or CCAs per se – within school premises, would they be covered by insurance, please?
We have cases when students carry out activities together, even though it is not part of CCA but it is an activity in school and they are injured, we will have to work with the insurance companies to see the nature of the injury. Nevertheless, we will try our best to see the circumstances of how it happens and see how we can facilitate the coverage of the insurance.
Mdm Speaker, may I just clarify. I am talking about interactions among young children. Things may happen between them, for example, while walking to canteen and then one pushes another, injuries are sustained. So, in those circumstances, would there be insurance coverage?
Like what I have said earlier, we have to look at the nature of the interaction. If it happens in school and if he is injured as a result of the interaction, we, on our part, will do our best to ensure that the students are protected.
Nevertheless, we have to look at the nature, the real nature, of the incident. Because to say that everything is covered is a sweeping statement. At the end of the day, it is the nature of how it happened. Nevertheless, I want to assure the House that we try to protect our students as much as possible because we know as they grow up in school, there may be activities that they engage in which sometimes may be grey. At the end of the day, sometimes, they may not be aware of what they do.
Nevertheless, this protection will provide them coverage and also give assurance to the parents that whatever the students do, the schools will really look after their welfare and also want to make sure that the students are well-protected.
PAPERCUTS