Since Chinese New Year, we have been at 1/3 capacity at school. There has been an uproar from parents. About 200+ parents submitted a letter to our company. Now we are going full capacity, but the cost of that is all teachers have to be tested for Covid-19 every two weeks. We will be at full capacity, but it will only be until 1PM each day.

There was an article in the South China Morning Post (SCMP) about this situation. Some of it was super patronizing. I know there are a lot of teachers unhappy about this situation. Not necessarily about the testing itself, but it was more about the vague guidelines surrounding it. We were basically told we have a choice, but the consequence of that choice is unpaid leave. It was considered a reasonable request under our contract.

I will be clear, I don’t object to the testing on a moral level. I, personally, wouldn’t have chosen to undergo the testing process independently without symptoms. It doesn’t really accomplish anything unless I was actually feeling unwell.

I do object to it at a logical level. We are not the only ones who can catch the illness. We are also not the only avenue by which the students can contract the illness. Testing teachers once every two weeks doesn’t actually protect anything. All we know is that we didn’t have Covid-19 on that given day when the test was taken.

On top of that, the school is in an area that doesn’t have a lot of cases. I know that our students come from all over as do the teachers. Looking just at this area though, we are in a very low incidence area.

It doesn’t really matter what I think though. If I want to work, I will take the test. I am not sure when we will be required to do it. We haven’t heard that yet.

I guess we will see what happens. Definitely interesting times…