The government has clarified how and when rainstorm warnings will be issued, and how students should react
It has been a wet few months in the city. The Education Bureau has given more details to schools about class suspensions when a red or black rainstorm warning is issued. This week, it stated that morning and whole-day classes would be cancelled for the day if such warnings were put out between 5.30am and 8am.
This comes about two weeks after the bureau announced that schools would be suspended all day if red or black rainstorm warnings were issued before 8am. But it said classes would continue if warnings were issued after 8am. Schools should arrange back-up plans, like having staff to look after students who had already arrived.
The bureau also said then that a suspension would be made public at the same time that a red or black rainstorm warning was issued.
Raymond Lai Tsz-man, chairman of the Hong Kong Aided Primary School Heads Association, said that “not many students would have begun their journey to school at around 5.30am”, but he said the issue of “awkward timing” still existed, as there was always the chance of the Observatory issuing red or black rainstorm warnings close to 8am, when many students were already on the way to school.
Young Post cadet Shayna Sujanani, 17, from Island School, said the new system had improved, but it did not make any difference if the warning signals were hoisted after 6.20am and she already set off. “They need to think about the people who live far away. I have to travel from Tung Chung to Central, so it’s kind of annoying if the warning is issued near 8am and I have to go back home, and that is a waste of our time,” said Sujanani.