Coronavirus Outbreak Leads to Homeschooling

As the worldwide spread of the coronavirus continues, schools in the most heavily infested areas are turning to homeschooling.

In Hong Kong, which alone has 800,000 students, concerns from the coronavirus have shut down schools, prompting a whole city to try homeschooling. The schools shut down on February 3 and won’t reopen until April 20

“Instead of calling off lessons, many schools expect students to keep up their work online, sending them assignments to complete and submit for grading,” wrote Lucy Craymer and Anthony Kwan in The Wall Street Journal. “Six-year-olds are writing nonfiction books and toddlers are having live video interactions with nursery-school teachers.”

With many offices also closed, some Hong Kong parents have admitted to struggling with having their kids home throughout the day and dealing with the “exhausting” work of organizing lessons and assignments.

“On Facebook, a Hong Kong parents group has posts from people worrying about children falling behind on important exam prep, complaining about balancing full-time jobs with supervising schoolwork or just missing having their kids out of the house for most of the day,” Craymer and Kwan wrote.

According to The Washington Post, the global death toll from the coronavirus has passed 3,000, while the most confirmed cases have been reported in China, South Korea, Italy, and Iran. As of March 2, there were 2 deaths from the coronavirus in the United States.