And I understand the rationale behind having recent travelers stay home. It makes sense (I guess -- though as a parent, if my kids were going to already start school a month late, this would not please me one bit).
But in the case of schools that had already been running classes for several weeks, it seems more punitive than anything else.
These schools made the decision to open on time (at the beginning of Ramadan), and have demonstrated that they had measures in place to deal with possible H1N1 virus infections.
I fail to see a significant advantage to having THESE students stay home for another week.
Using this logic, I guess we should anticipate future weekly closings of schools following other break times when outside travel will be likely: the second Eid break in November, again in December for the Christmas holiday, and again in March for spring break/Easter.
They're not closing the universities at Education City (and they have been in session for several weeks now). If the government seriously thought there was a pressing need to control the spread of the virus that necessitated shutting things down, they would mandate that ALL educational organizations close for one week.
But they're not.
"Marriage is a wonderful institution...but who wants to live in an institution?" -- Groucho Marx
And I understand the rationale behind having recent travelers stay home. It makes sense (I guess -- though as a parent, if my kids were going to already start school a month late, this would not please me one bit).
But in the case of schools that had already been running classes for several weeks, it seems more punitive than anything else.
These schools made the decision to open on time (at the beginning of Ramadan), and have demonstrated that they had measures in place to deal with possible H1N1 virus infections.
I fail to see a significant advantage to having THESE students stay home for another week.
Using this logic, I guess we should anticipate future weekly closings of schools following other break times when outside travel will be likely: the second Eid break in November, again in December for the Christmas holiday, and again in March for spring break/Easter.
They're not closing the universities at Education City (and they have been in session for several weeks now). If the government seriously thought there was a pressing need to control the spread of the virus that necessitated shutting things down, they would mandate that ALL educational organizations close for one week.
But they're not.
"Marriage is a wonderful institution...but who wants to live in an institution?" -- Groucho Marx