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Legislator Ip Kin-yuen

2020-03-22
With the World Health Organization declaring COVID-19 a “pandemic”, the impact of the new coronavirus on the entire world has entered a new phase. Medical experts in Hong Kong have also warned that, with outbreaks taking place around the world, the epidemic in Hong Kong is most likely to be endless due to new cases being imported into our city. Based on our SARS experience in 2003, we estimated that the epidemic could come to an end in the hot weather of summer. This estimate will have to be re-evaluated. If the epidemic is unfortunately no longer a short-term and localized threat, but a medium-to-long-term and global one, its impact on public health, economy, politics, education and other aspects might become formidable.
 
Impact on Economy
 
At a meeting between democratic Legislative Councillors and the Chief Secretary for Administration CHEUNG Kin-chung on 12 March, I clearly conveyed this message: The first round of Government's anti-epidemic fund has fallen behind the situation. Many businesses have not been covered and the impact of the epidemic on the economy and people’s livelihood is very likely to continue and become more serious. It is necessary that the Government launch a second round of anti-epidemic fund and assist businesses not covered in the first round such as tuition institutes, education centers, part-time tutors and coaches who provide extra-curricular training for schools. There is also a need to enhance support for the unemployed and the semi-unemployed, and to strengthen the loans available to the SMEs to tide them over their difficulties. Compared with other economies, Hong Kong has a substantial reserve. Now is exactly the time to deploy a small portion of it. Hong Kong must also carefully monitor the impact of the epidemic on the global economic structure and the changes the epidemic will bring about in the short, medium and long terms. As an open and dynamic economy, we have to swiftly respond and adapt to the changes in the environment.
 
Digital Divide
 
The impact of the epidemic on the education sector goes far beyond public expenditure. Classes have been suspended for more than two months, and there is no certainty when classes can be resumed. While the slogan “No class but learning goes on” via distance learning alleviates the cost of class suspension, its effectiveness has been extremely uneven. It can be regarded, at best, as an inevitable remedial measure. Distance teaching has exposed the disparity between the rich and the poor and the gravity of the “digital divide” in our community. Students of some of our families in the middle and lower social strata are not able to participate in distance learning because they simply do not have computers at home, or they cannot afford access to the Internet, or the speed of the Internet available to them is too slow. The digital highway, the very structure for online teaching, simply cannot reach some of our grass-roots children, resulting in the dire consequence of “No class, No learning”. We do not know whether similar lengthy class suspensions will occur in the future but what we do know is that bridging the “digital divide” is definitely an issue which compels priority.
 
Essential considerations for class resumption
 
When to resume classes is a topical issue in the community. From the viewpoint of education, we naturally hope to see, soonest possible, classes being resumed and school life returning to normal. We must, however, be cautious about public health, particularly that of teachers and students. As it now stands, there are two major considerations before we could have class resumption: (a) The epidemic must have come under control. For example, there are no confirmed cases with unknown history in 28 consecutive days; and (b) Schools must have sufficient anti-epidemic materials, the most outstanding problem of which is the availability of face masks, bearing in mind that comprehensive class resumption entails the consumption of one million face masks every single day, which is no small number and that face masks have to be of different sizes to cater for the different needs of adolescents and small kids. Does the Government have confidence in solving this problem?
 
Other Issues
 
Other issues with which people are concerned include arrangements for HKDSE examinations; the returning of Hong Kong students from Hubei, Europe and the US; and the economic pressure faced by private post-secondary institutions, schools and kindergartens. The challenges faced by the education sector posed by the epidemic are many and varied. What has been mentioned above constitutes only the tip of the iceberg. I hope that the Government and all sectors can work together to overcome each and every one of the problems.

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