Schools in Thailand are encouraging their students to learn and play while enclosed in plastic transparent cubicles, a strict social distancing measure to fight coronavirus in the country.
Children as young as six in Wat Khlong Toey School, a kindergarten in #Bangok are enclosed within Perspex boxes during lessons and are allowed to play in seclusion with toys in screened areas.
During morning hours as students arrive for school, their teachers hand them face masks to wear throughout the day. Face shields are provided in some cases as an extra measure.
The school was forced to close in mid-March due to Thailand's emergency decree and lockdown to stem the #coronavirus pandemic.
Authorities recommend class sizes restricted to 20-25 students, doorknobs, desks and other areas at risk of spreading the infection to be sanitized frequently throughout the day.
Other measures implemented by education institutions across the country include installing sinks, soap dispensers and installing temperature scanners at the school entry.
Wat Khlong Toey School has been open for a month and has had zero cases of COVID-19.
It has chosen to maintain the strict measures in a bid to protect staff and pupils, despite the government’s request to further relax safety measures.
“At Sam Khok school, about 31 miles north of Bangkok, nearly 5,000 students were made to self-quarantine at home for 15-days prior to the re-start in July as an extra precaution” Principal Chuchart Thiengtham told Reuters.
He also added that Students must also have their temperature checked and a facial recognition scanner automatically sends a message to parents.
One student, Kanlaya Srimongkhol says she feels good studying behind the transparent box because it makes her feel safer at school.
The school has also turned cardboard ballot boxes used in elections into partitions to ensure social distancing between desks.
Bangkok is reported to have opened its schools in early July with a series of strict measures that were placed by the government as a means of curbing #COVID-19.
The country has also delayed plans for a 'travel bubble' agreement with certain countries as the number of new cases rises in other parts of Asia.
'We are delaying discussion of travel bubble arrangements for now given the outbreak situation in other countries,' Thailand's #coronavirus taskforce spokesman, Taweesin Wisanuyothin, told Reuters.
To date, a total of 58 people in Thailand have died of coronavirus and there have been 3,351 infections - a low toll despite becoming the first country outside China to detect an infection in mid-January.
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