New Taipei Outlines Punishment for Schools with Subpar Health Standards|學童確診武漢肺炎 新北加強補習班防疫

Currently, there has been 31 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Taiwan so far. The latest confirmed patient is an 11-year old student in New Taipei City. As the student had attended a cram school during the winter holidays, New Taipei Mayor are now ordering all cram schools to enforce the same disease prevention measures as public schools.


Students have returned to schools at the beginning of a new semester. An owner of after-school classes, or cram schools, has opened up the window to get some fresh air in the class room. The school has also prepared 200 spare surgical masks to provide to children in case they happen to forget to bring their own. New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi has reiterated the importance of all after-school classes and daycare centers to have all attendees wear masks in enclosed spaces.

If schools don't comply with our health standards, I'll make sure to rectify the issue. If the situation is serious, I'll order them to suspend recruitment. There's no wiggle room on this issue.

Schools found to have not complied with the city's health standards will be subject to punishment, including the possibility of having their operating license revoked. Chen Chyun-hsiang, director of the New Taipei After-School Class Association, said that all school owners and operators are willing to comply with the city's health policy and will do their best to implement disease prevention measures. However, Chen said, the prospect of a severe punishment has brought much pressure to the school owners.

Some students, especially those at the high school level, have very strong personalities. They very often don't follow the teachers' instructions. If the city government would fine a cram school immediately upon finding a student's violation of health policies, this would bring much pressure to the school owners.

Our association sent a mass-email on January 30 to all the cram schools in the city asking all teaching staff and students to wear masks all the time. This has drawn some backlash from parents. Honestly, this makes me question whether we have the authority to have a say in matters like this.

Chen Chyun-hsiang said the fact that the latest confirmed case of COVID-19 patient is an 11-year old who had attended cram school has drawn concerns from some parents. So far, there hasn't been a large number of parents who canceled classes, though some school owners have been told by certain parents that their children won't attend classes for now. The school owners have called on the city government to reconsider the severity of their punishment, since like many sectors, the cram schools industry are already suffering from ongoing epidemic.



開學了，學生在校上課，補習班業者把握好天氣，開窗通風、清潔桌面，清點一下口罩還有200個，假若孩子入班時忘了戴，能拿出來使用。新北市長侯友宜重申，新北市的補習班和安親班，屬密閉空間，師生都要戴口罩。

新北市長 侯友宜表示：「不然抱歉我會糾正，然後視狀況嚴重的話，我會停止招生，這個我們毫無妥協的餘地。」

視情節輕重做出不同處分，但最重者撤銷立案，毫無妥協餘地，新北市補教策進會理事長陳春香說，大家都願意配合政策，也努力防疫，但市府這罰則，帶給業者很大壓力。

新北市補教策進會理事長 陳春香表示：「有的孩子像，尤其國高中以上的孩子，他們的自主性又更強，絕對不是老師你講了，我一定會照著做，如果說這樣的一個處罰，馬上就罰業者的話，我是覺得對業者的壓力會很大。」

北市補教協會總幹事 張浩然表示：「其實我們台北市補教協會，在1月30號就發一個郵件，給所有的補習班，要求員工、老師及學生，全程戴口罩，當然這也引起很多家長的不滿，但是呢，講句真話，補習班的公權力何在。」

陳春香說，第31例確診個案是住在新北的11歲學童，因為寒假曾上補習班，引起部分家長不安，目前還沒傳出大規模退課，已有同業的安親班接獲家長表示，暫時不讓孩子過去，疫情衝擊各行業，希望市府重新思考，不要祭出這麼重的罰則。