Opinion: RP & H1N1

My school, RP, has been under the media spotlight recently due to the recent H1N1 outbreak in Singapore, which has grown to 878 cases island-wide since the first reported case on May 27 2009. RP has so far been the largest community cluster, with 91 cases in just about a month. The school has implemented a series of measures that has caused an uproar among both students and staff, as well as the public.

Just a brief overview of what has happened so far:

• RP confirms first few cases of H1N1, students of that classes sent home. Classrooms affected were locked and disinfected.
• Number of cases still increasing, mostly among the Year 1 blocks. Few days later, RP announced that all Year 1 students are issued a one week Leave of Absence (LOA) starting 25 June 2009, and have lessons online. Staff are to continue reporting to campus as usual, but are required to have their temperatures checked every time they enter the Command Centers of their respective modules.
• Year 2 & 3 students are not happy with the measure, and started a petition. Their main reason was that they felt RP is only concerned with the health of Year 1s, but not Year 2s and 3s.
• In the meantime, all school activities and co-curricular activities will stop till 2 July 2009.
• Cases continue to rise as Year 1 students are on LOA. RP does contact tracing, issues LOA to all students/staff who are at risk or has been in contact with affected students/staff.
• On 30 June 2009, Principal Yeo Li Phew sends an e-mail to all students regarding his thoughts about H1N1 and the measures implemented by RP.
• All school activities and co-curricular activities will stop till further notice. All sports activities in the Sports Complex will also stop till further notice.

Year 1 students returned to campus on 2 July 2009. On their return, RP implemented the following measures:

• 1 July 2009: Announces that timeout windows for the 3 different module groups (Group 1 – Year 1, Group 2 – Year 2, Group 3 – Year 3) will be implemented starting 2 July 2009. Students are to only leave their classrooms during specific time periods during breaks, and remain in their classrooms at all other times. Also to leave the campus immediately after their lessons end.
• 2 July 2009: Announces that random thermometer checks will commence on campus starting 3 July 2009. Students/staff without thermometers will be asked to leave the campus. Staff will check whether students in their class have their thermometers, if not, the student(s) will be asked to leave as well.
• 3 July 2009: Announces that students are to only patronize the food court assigned to their building starting 4 July 2009. There are 3 food courts in RP. They are not allowed to patronize the other food courts.

While these measures may bring us inconvenience, I can understand that all these are done to prevent any further spread of the virus. However, I feel that RP’s management is not doing enough to contain the virus. In many ways, it is putting everyone on campus at further risk. Let’s look at it this way:

• Even if you assign students different timeout windows or food court allocation, how will this decrease the risk of the virus spreading? Students may unknowingly contract the virus on the way or back from campus, on their outings with friends and family or even at home.
• People have different preferences for food. Even if you may argue this is not a time to be choosy, I cannot deny the fact that the food quality of the food in the 3 food courts vary vastly. Furthermore, we pay our fees to be given the right (it is NOT a privilege) to use the facilities in the campus, and that includes the food courts.
• Queues and lack of space in food courts. RP officially does not allow students to eat in classrooms, for the usual reasons of hygiene and cleanliness. However, by using these break out windows and food court allocation, the queues will be longer and there will be no space to eat in the food courts.
• When preparing a presentation during the second study period, we may allocate different times for different team members to eat. Mostly, we will get the basic information done first before going off to do our own stuff. Through these measures, I am sure it is going to decrease productivity because everyone will be rushing.

So why don’t RP implement the following measures?

• Close school for a WEEK. Use this week to thoroughly disinfect the classrooms. Track students health for the week and make sure those who are sick or are at a higher risk be given LOA. Then push back the entire semester by a week, instead of conducting useless e-learning lessons with materials meant for PBL, and therefore team discussions. Furthermore, e-learning grades do not count towards any final module grades. So it doesn’t make any sense.
• Use THERMAL SCANNING. RP has done a good job of implementing thermal scanning when the first H1N1 outbreak happened somewhere further away from Singapore. It seems to me, all these are only done for the sole purpose of attracting the media, that “RP can deal with H1N1”. Well, you got your international media attention RP, because even AFP reported on it.

  So isn’t it now due time to actually implement thermal scanning since the real thing is here? Or are you really doing so just for the media, and now since there’s a H1N1 outbreak, you guys can’t do anything about it or don’t have the financial resources to handle it? Thermal scanning will screen those who are unwell more accurately, instead of just “looking out for people who don’t look well”.

We pay our school fees in the thousands, some of us even pay tens of thousands. So isn’t it time for RP to actually put the student’s health first? Above just attracting the media or just to finish the syllabus?

A note to the RP management: if you want us to stop speculating, then make your Business Continuity Plan available to either the students or to the public. We won’t know what is going on if you do not tell us in advance.

A note to readers of the blog: The recap of what happened in RP was taken from various sources, namely e-mails sent from RP to all students, RP’s internal H1N1 website as well as news sources like ChannelNewsAsia. The opinions expressed above are solely mine, based on observations and speculations, and do not constitute fact. They are merely suggestions, and not protests or demand.

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