---
title: All Singapore Schools Up To JCs To Be Closed Until 6th April
date: 2003-03-26 20:12:47
permalink: https://lesterchan.net/blog/2003/03/26/all-singapore-schools-up-to-jcs-to-be-closed-until-6th-april/
author: Lester Chan
categories:
  - Current Affairs
---

All Singapore schools up to junior colleges will be closed until Sunday, 6 April, announced Education Minister Teo Chee Hean at a news conference on Wednesday evening.

This is the news as copy + paste from Channel News Asia:

> This is a precaution against the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which claimed its first death on Tuesday night.
> 
> The patient died under intensive care in the Tan Tock Seng hospital.
> 
> There have also been 5 new SARS cases in Singapore, bringing the total number infected to 74.
> 
> All the five new cases are hospital staff. Ten of the 74 patients are still in serious condition.
> 
> Singapore has also decided to close all schools up to junior college level from Thursday till 6 April.
> 
> The closure covers pre-primary, primary, secondary, junior colleges and centralised institutes.
> 
> The current school term will instead be extended into the June school holidays to make up for the time lost.
> 
> This will affect 600,000 students.
> 
> Only Singapore’s polytechnics, institutes of technical education and universities will stay open.
> 
> The move was announced at a media briefing by Singapore’s Education and Health ministers.
> 
> The closure is in response to concerns among many Singapore parents over the SARS outbreak.
> 
> Health Minister Lim Hng Kiang said: “There’s no need for us to over-react, and be completely panicky. At the same time we should not be overly complacent.
> 
> “Say for example tomorrow (Thursday) when we close the schools, I hope parents won’t take it lightly and send the kids to the shopping centres and they congregate there. Then it defeats the whole purpose.
> 
> “I think the whole idea of closing the school is to minimise big groups of students having close contacts, and that’s the reason why sports and competitions are all closed.
> 
> “So I think Singaporeans must be educated on the nature of SARS and take the appropriate measures, working with us to deal with it.”

This is getting worst.