Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region – 3
To ensure the safety of students, the Education Bureau (EDB) has reminded schools to make necessary preparations for the potentially unstable weather on the first day of school. The EDB would also like to take this opportunity to remind students and parents again to stay tuned to the latest weather and traffic updatesStudents and parents are therefore reminded that in the event of tropical cyclones and/or heavy persistent rain, the EDB will announce the schooling arrangements for that day based on the latest weather information provided by the HKO, through the following channels:
- AM and Whole-day Schools
- AM and Whole-day SchoolsIn addition, in accordance with the above-mentioned EDB Circular, schools will formulate and review from time to time school-based contingency plans in advance to cater for various situations that may arise under inclement weather conditions, such as class suspension. Where events organised by schools might need to be postponed or cancelled under inclement weather, schools should inform all relevant parties of the contingency arrangements in advance.
As the situations in localised areas may differ from the territory as a whole, under the prevailing mechanism, if the EDB has not made any announcement for suspension of classes but individual schools consider it necessary to suspend their classes having regard to local weather, road, slope or traffic conditions, the schools concerned may proceed after consulting the EDB. They should at the same time inform relevant parties according to the established contingency plans. Parents can exercise their discretion in deciding whether or not to send their children to school if the local weather, roads, slopes or traffic conditions are adverseStudents, especially those attending a new school, should familiarise themselves early with public transport routes to and from their schools and the service frequencies. Students should take heed of road safety on their journeys, properly use crossing facilities to cross the road, and not use a mobile phone or earphones, play mobile games, eat or drink when crossing the road. The Transport Department (TD) anticipates that the overall road traffic on the first school day will be busier and urges students to allow more time and pay attention to the latest traffic information. The TD’s Emergency Transport Co-ordination Centre will release the latest information as appropriate. Members of the public are advised to heed the latest traffic news through the TD’s website (https://www.td.gov.hk), the HKeMobility mobile app, radio and television broadcasts. For details, please refer to the TD’s press releases issued on August 24 and 31 entitled “TD reminds public transport operators to provide adequate services on first school day” and “TD reminds students to allow more journey time on first school day” respectively.
- AM and Whole-day SchoolsIn addition, in accordance with the above-mentioned EDB Circular, schools will formulate and review from time to time school-based contingency plans in advance to cater for various situations that may arise under inclement weather conditions, such as class suspension. Where events organised by schools might need to be postponed or cancelled under inclement weather, schools should inform all relevant parties of the contingency arrangements in advance.