In China, schools open to youngest children last, citing lack of discipline for physical distancing

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Jia Peng dropped his son off at Hujialou Central Primary School in Beijing Monday morning, parked his motorcycle a short distance away – then doubled back on foot to check on his son, a Grade 4 student who was returning to school for the first time since mid-January.

“I actually followed him a bit to see if he would pull off his mask as soon as he met his friends again,” Mr. Jia said. “I was relieved to see he didn’t do anything wrong, even when he was alone.”

Mr. Jia was worried in part because his son is among the youngest students allowed to return to school in the Chinese capital, which has taken a highly guarded approach to pandemic reopening. Whereas schools in British Columbia and Quebec have reopened their doors wide to younger students, Chinese authorities have been reluctant to allow elementary-school children to return, citing their lack of the discipline required for physical distancing.

The youngest students have “a relatively weak ability to take care of themselves and need more attention. So we will take a more cautious attitude,” said Lu Jing, director of the Municipal Education Commission in Shanghai, in April. In that city, the youngest children did not return to school until June 2, with special protocols in place that involve twice-daily classroom disinfection and temperature checks.

Anti-epidemic measures include frequent hand-washing, wearing protective masks and physical distancing. “For older kids, these things are not terribly difficult. But they can be quite tough for younger ones, which poses great challenges for school management,” said Ma Jin, a professor at the School of Public Health at Shanghai Jiaotong University.

In British Columbia, children in kindergarten through Grade 5 were allowed to return last week on a part-time basis; those in Grades 6 to 12 can attend class once a week. Outside of a few areas, including Montreal, Quebec has reopened preschools and elementary schools – but doesn’t plan to reopen secondary schools until the end of August. Manitoba has given priority to reopening daycares and postsecondary institutions.

Like Canada, China has taken a province-by-province approach to reopening, although each region has tended to follow a similar approach.

In Beijing, graduating high-school students were allowed back first, largely because they had to prepare for university placement exams. Next came Grade 9 students, who must similarly write high-school placement exams. On Monday, the remainder of middle school and high school reopened. But for now schools remain closed to the first three primary grades, with no clear plan for reopening.

China’s approach reflects cultural mores as much as pandemic requirements, said Benjamin Cowling, an epidemiologist at Hong Kong University. Neither the Canadian approach nor the Chinese approach “is really right or wrong in terms of public health,” he said.

In Western countries, reopening younger grades removes a child-care burden, allowing parents to return to work. Having young children at home is “causing disruption in society,” Prof. Cowling said. In China, where grandparents play a larger role in raising children, many families have access to child care even if both parents return to work. But parents “will consider high school educationally vital for their children. Primary school is perhaps not so educationally vital,” he said.

For a country that spent many years under a one-child policy, there is also a high public deference for young children. “Younger kids always attract the most attention in our society,” Prof. Ma said. “If the younger group is infected, many people would be dragged in and held accountable. That’s why schools prefer to be more cautious about them.”

In April, state media in Fujian province reported that “most parents believe that it is not advisable for lower primary school and kindergarten to rush back to school before the epidemic is fully controlled.”

In general, however, children have proven comparatively less vulnerable to COVID-19, Prof. Cowling said – and the scientific data call into question the value of school closings outside periods of full social lockdown.

However, even if they do not become ill, children can “shed the virus and pass it to parents or grandparents,” said Ivan Hung, chief of the infectious diseases division at the University of Hong Kong. “So it makes a lot of sense to close the schools.”

That’s particularly true for younger children, he said. ”They may not be compliant in wearing masks or not wear them properly. They have relatively poor hand hygiene. So that makes them at a higher risk of transmitting the virus than the senior years.”

For some parents in Beijing, the logic of the Chinese approach is clear. Younger kids want to play, not be hindered by masks or other precautions. They don’t “even know what an epidemic really is,” said Guo Hongrui, whose Grade 4 son also returned to the Hujialou school Monday.

That’s not the case with older kids, said Li Ling, who packed her fifth-grade daughter’s bag with three masks and a pair of gloves for her first day back. Ms. Li said her daughter “knows more about fighting the virus than we do.”

The Hujialou school required children to report their temperatures for two weeks before resuming classes and pass a nucleic acid test to prove they were coronavirus-free. Schools have issued clear guidelines, including a requirement that masks be worn at all times, with exceptions for physical-education classes and lunchtime.

With all that in place, “it’s no exaggeration to say that the school is actually much safer than many other places,” Mr. Guo said.

He, like many other parents, had no complaint about having to wait much longer for the return to school.

“Spending time to eradicate all possible risks before allowing kids to go back is a wise decision,” Mr. Jia said. “You may think that having children at home would make parents want schools to reopen faster. But as a parent, I care more about safety.”

With reporting by Alexandra Li