Japanese Primary School Games under the Epidemic

Japan, which is the second most severely affected area in Asia, has seen a gradual slowdown in the number of daily confirmed cases recently. Perhaps " herd immunity 😆" has come into play. On October 1, the declaration of a state of emergency for nearly half a year finally ended (similar to Taiwan's level 3 alert being lowered to level 2). The son's primary school sports meeting will be held on October 2 (Saturday) as scheduled, and parents can also watch it. If the emergency declaration does not end, the school originally planned not to open parent visits. I think that during the epidemic, it is difficult for public institutions like schools to make decisions easily in the face of various activities that require crowds to gather, especially when the elementary school my son attends is located in the hardest-hit area of Japan.

This time, I will show you what kind of anti-epidemic measures are implemented in our primary school sports meeting. The most basic anti-epidemic measures, such as wearing a mask, taking the temperature at the door, and spraying alcohol, do not need to be specifically explained. Other regulations stipulate that each family can only send up to 2 family members to enter the venue, whether it is a large family of three generations, a small family, if grandparents also want to see their grandchildren, then parents cannot go. It not only limits the number of people, but also divides the time period for parents to enter the venue. There will be a short interval before each grade's performance time before the parents of that grade can enter. That is to say, the first-grade students have to start the performance, and the parents of the first-grade can enter the venue. After the performance is over, all the parents of other grades will be arranged to enter.

What if there are parents who have nothing to do and want to stay and continue watching? School staff will come to persuade parents to leave. How does the school know which grade the parent is, and everyone is wearing masks, with only their eyes exposed. When entering the school, in addition to confirming which child is the parent, it is also necessary to put a certain color label on the clothes, and the school will confirm the identity based on this color.

Fortunately, our primary school is really a small school. There is only one class in each grade, and each class has less than 30 students. The maximum number of parents at the same time period will not exceed 60. Otherwise, the school staff may be exhausted in order to receive parents.

Although it is a good idea to divide the time period of each grade so that a large number of parents will not gather at the same time, the content of the sports meeting will be greatly reduced, and children of each grade can only be allocated one performance program and one competition item. Parents can only see their own children's performances, and the competition seems to be held in all grades, and all parents cannot stay and watch. That is, the time between parents entering the school and leaving the school will not exceed half an hour.

Basically, there are no mandatory epidemic prevention regulations for individuals in Japan, and most people usually wear masks due to peer pressure from society. Take a closer look at the children in the performance. Some people wear masks and some don't. This is mainly due to the influence of parents who hold various views on epidemic prevention. The principals of the school believe that they have also racked their brains and painstakingly arranged various epidemic prevention measures. Thanks to the principal and all staff for their hard work on weekdays, even though the epidemic has spread for nearly two years, so far, there has been no cluster infection in my son's school.

2021/10/5 posted.

Original link to Japan behind-the-scenes observation