The government is to adopt supplementary measures to ensure that the education rights of nearly 630 students below the high-school level who are unable to return to Taiwan from China, Hong Kong or Macau due to the COVID-19 outbreak, Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung said yesterday.
“Students trapped overseas can take advantage of government assistance, such as digital learning programs and online video classes,” Pan told a news conference after a meeting of the Executive Yuan in Taipei.
These students could return once the outbreak in those areas is under control, he said.
Any ninth-graders who cannot return by May, when the national high-school entrance exam is held, would be allowed to take the exam in China, he added.
The Ministry of Education is working with National Taiwan Normal University’s Research Center for Psychological and Educational Testing, which creates the exam questions, and the China-based schools attended by the children of Taiwanese businesspeople, Pan said, adding that a different set of questions at the same difficulty level would be prepared for students in China.
There are 289 students who study overseas, but cannot leave Taiwan and have been placed in local schools, he said, adding that they would be eligible to take the exam if they choose to do so.
A total of 578 students nationwide have been placed in quarantine after they were found to have a fever when elementary and junior-high schools began the new semester on Tuesday, ministry data showed.
The ministry has collaborated with local education bureaus to establish remote-teaching programs in case of suspensions due to infections, Pan said on Wednesday.
After sending 6.45 million masks to schools, the ministry is next month to begin distributing 94,000 liters of disinfectant alcohol per month to public and private schools nationwide, he said, adding that 25,000 forehead thermometers would be dispatched on Monday next week.
More disease-prevention supplies are to be allocated should any school report confirmed cases, Pan said, adding that the exterior of more than 4,100 schools were disinfected before the semester.
