Influenza A hit Bangkok HARD recently. Many schools in our region reported numerous students out sick for several weeks, with hospitals reported to be at capacity. Sadly, it even hit me. Not one to take many days off, I kept myself at home this past Monday. Student absences due to sickness at our school were reported at over 15% of our entire student body for multiple days in September. Substitute teachers’ cell phones also stayed busy to accommodate teacher absences. One can imagine how much the flow of learning was impacted, from summative assessment make-ups to the rewriting of lesson plans to the learning connections made from one class to the next. When educators talk about student learning, we often engage in conversations around curriculum design, targeted student support, and research-backed pedagogy, but a sick student at home sneezing non-stop isn’t going to care much about that. We shouldn’t overlook what health looks like in our school environments and how schools can stay safe, healthy, and informed.
When was the last time you had a conversation with your school nurses? How well do you know the protocols they follow when attending to a sick student? How about the communication from the school clinic to the respective section offices and home? I am guilty of this myself, as it’s not normally a part of my daily routine to make a visit to our school clinic. Take time to recall what the procedures are when the school clinic measures a high fever or when a student has an upset stomach. If a child needs to go home, when are teachers informed? Are they even informed at all? Does the rest of the school day’s attendance for this student reflect this? If a child needs to stay at home to recover for several days, how does learning and communication between school and home continue?
I am blessed to be at a school where so many of our families value the importance of education; our students love being at school. However, this has a side effect, as sometimes students come back to campus before their doctor’s note allows them to. We are currently in the process of improving our communication with teachers about what to do in this situation. It could come down to the relatively simple solution of adding another symbol to our attendance system that our section offices enter when receiving doctor’s notes from the parent or school clinic.
What has Covid taught us about health awareness within our school communities? Many schools have since pushed health education up a few notches on the priority list, and I have heard of several adding more Parent Coffees on this topic. What is scary is that there is already talk that we will experience another pandemic in our lifetime. Our school has started sharing “health nuggets” at our weekly school assemblies, and I have noticed more signs around campus suggesting proper ways to wash hands. Signs of mandatory wearing of masks are still peppered around campus too, like archaic remains of a pandemic long ago. I would even suggest a deep dive by the curriculum gods at schools to see how health education is incorporated into each grade’s academic program.
This is as close as I’ll ever get to feeling like a doctor. I prefer to keep my educator hat on. But coming off a recent cold, I am reminded of how much the learning process gets affected when sickness arrives. Sometimes people just need their rest. Period. Now if someone can train all of our youngsters to always cover their mouths when they sneeze, please tell me!
Mark Dominguez 