Story By: John Feng, Sub-Editor:  Joseph Golder, Agency: Asia Wire Report

AsiaWire

This is the moment dozens of secondary school students are forced to have their school meals while standing outside their cafeteria because of social distancing rules.

The bizarre scenes said to have been filmed in China’s south-western province of Guizhou have been likened to a ‘prison’ or ‘labour camp’.

The social media video shows uniformed pupils standing behind a line of barrier tape as they each hold a bowl of food and eat with chopsticks.

The students, who are in their final year of secondary school, appear to be standing in a zone designated for ‘Class 19’, a sign seen in video shows.

They pull their surgical masks down onto their chins as they each have their meals while trying to maintain a distance of 1.5 metres (5 feet), reports said.

In the clip, other students can be seen queuing outside the cafeteria, which is now only serving ‘takeaway’ meals during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Social media user ‘Cifer Lu’ wrote: “Are these students or prisoners?”

‘Yilin Shao’ added: “This looks worse than a labour camp.”

On 16th March, the province of Guizhou brought some 990,000 junior and senior high school students in more than 2,400 schools back to class amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Their lessons were priorities ahead of crucial state exams known as ‘gaokao’, which have been postponed by a month due to the pandemic.

Secondary school pupils in other years are expected to return starting 21st April, while an announcement on primary and nursery schools are expected mid-May.

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