Some 200,000 secondary school students across the island return to school today after a two-week break. Schools were closed on 27 March 2003 to contain the SARS outbreak here.

Just what is in store for these students when they walk past the school gates? Anxious to calm parents’ fears of their children catching the SARS bug at school, the Ministry of Education (MOE) has been very busy behind the scenes taking steps to ensure the safety of all students at school. 

MOE has come up with an educational package to explain to students the importance of personal hygiene and social responsibility in curbing the spread of SARS. To monitor effectively the situation in schools, it has put into place post-school-reopening procedures for schools to follow. Schools here have also been disinfected before their reopening today. Classrooms will certainly smell of lysol - a disinfectant used in hospitals. The disinfecting of classrooms will be a daily routine.

Teachers have not been resting on their laurels either. They have been busy attending meetings and forming groups to process students even before these students go back to school. Over the past few days, teachers have been calling up the parents and guardians of these students to check whether the students are in good health. If a student is not feeling well, the parent/guardian is advised not to let the student come to school. Also, students who have travelled to index countries the past two weeks have been reminded to attend school only when the 10-day quarantine period has expired. Such checks prior to school reopening serve to reduce any risks to the rest of the school population. 

So when students walk through the school gates, they can expect to be screened by duty teachers who will be on the outlook for anyone who looks ill. If the teachers sight such students, they will lead them to an appointed area for the students’ temperatures to be taken. And no one, except the students, will be allowed to go through the school gates. Those who have official business will have to fill in a declaration form and be screened before they can come in.

Students who have been found to have a fever during lesson time will be asked to go to a holding room set aside specially to monitor fever cases. In the room, both the student and teacher will adorn disposable masks. If the situation warrants it, the principal or vice-principal will call for an ambulance. So you see, the MOE is not leaving any stone unturned. And the students aren’t the only ones being monitored. Their teachers’ health will also be checked regularly by appointed fellow staff members and teachers will be asked to seek medical attention immediately if they feel unwell during school hours.

Assembly periods for the whole week have been postponed, save for that today. Today, principals will brief students on the SARS situation. Thereafter, these students will attend some programmes arranged by the MOE to educate them on personal hygiene and social responsibility. Recess periods have also been rescheduled. Most schools now have different recess times for each level of students so instead of the usual two recess periods - one for lower level & one for upper level - there are, perhaps, four recesses.

The rationale behind these steps is clear - to avoid situations in which large numbers of students congregate. Students are also not allowed to stay back after their school hours. In fact, CCA and enrichment classes have been postponed indefinitely on the orders of MOE. Some schools which have earlier agreed to participate in extra-school competitions have been prudent enough to back out of these events - their students’ welfare comes first, not glory.

Schools do not expect 100 per cent attendance in the first few days of the week, but, with so many precautions in place, I am sure both parents and guardians will realise that their children are in good hands at school.

The last two Mondays I had been harping on the topic of SARS. This week I will go on rattling about SARS - because this newcomer has made a great impact on the world we live in. Its greatest impact must be in the area of personal relationships. Many of us are no longer rational in our behaviour. We nervously look over our shoulders every time someone near by coughs or sneezes.

In fact, just the other day, I was in the public library when I inadvertently let out a cough when browsing through some new books near the entrance. A woman who had just entered the library immediately grimaced and moved away from me.

I admit I was taken aback by her reaction and therefore showed a particular interest in her actions so later I conveniently found myself browsing through books at the shelf near where she was seated. Sure enough, she sported the same traumatised look when someone sitting adjacent to her coughed. To add to her horror, another chap on the left - some two metres away - started coughing. There was kind of a rhythm in the way each cough reciprocated the other. I didn’t hang around long enough to find out more. 

You must be thinking I was haughty to have behaved that way. Yes, indeed I was! But, I was interested in finding out some people’s reactions to coughs and sneezes nowadays - since the SARS invasion of our lives.

Have we become sort of hysterical lately? If not, why do I read letters (to newspaper forums) from nurses complaining that people they meet on the MRT and in the public areas give them a wide berth? I was listening to the radio programme Car Toons one recent evening and heard someone who had dialed into the programme complain that one of her friends, a nurse, was not allowed by the landlady to move into her rented room in an HDB flat. This chap who called into the programme also said that there was a message in the lift lobby saying that TTSH nurses should not use the lifts. 

Now, I do not know whether that is true or not, but the incident does demonstrate the kind of unfriendly behaviour - now making its rounds here - that is unbecoming of us Singaporeans. These nurses put their patients’ well-being above themselves and in return, we - the members of the public whom they serve - spite them just because SARS has driven spikes into our lives. Now, is that fair?
We Singaporeans should adopt responsible behaviour. We should not let SARS run our lives. We must go on living, albeit with some minor changes in our routine such as coughing into tissue paper and washing our hands with soap whenever the opportunity arises. And, we should not let our fears get the better of us. 

I know some of you who read this column are bound to ask me whether I, when put into the same situation as those I have mentioned earlier, will be able to demonstrate the kind of exemplary behaviour I have been expounding today. Well, frankly, I base my actions on two facts which I have learnt from the Ministry of Health’s advisories: 

1. So far, those infected by SARS have been in close contact with the index (source) cases
2. Those who were in the hospitals but had no close contact with these index cases did not get SARS
With the Government having put in place checks at the airports and monitoring of arrivals from the index countries, there is little chance new index cases will get into Singapore unnoticed.

We should not let SARS wreck havoc in our lives or cause friction between us and others we meet in the daily course of our lives. I know that I won’t. I won’t go around wearing a mask. I won’t give nurses a wide berth. But, I will wash my hands with soap every chance I get, for I know germs like living matter such as my skin.