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KUALA LUMPUR: The Minister of Education, Radzi Jidin, has explained that all the schools dependent on the ministry will remain closed until the end of the academic year because they still represent a high risk of the students and staff being infected with Covid-19.
He said that as of last Friday, a total of 763 schools had registered positive cases among their staff.
“This record may not be accurate because there is a possibility that some cases have not been reported to the ministry,” he told Dewan Rakyat today.
Radzi said that children were currently at higher risk of infection due to the increase in workplace clusters involving employees who were also parents.
“Losing time in school has been the biggest challenge for us. We have tried to find new ways to ensure that we can keep schools open, because we want our students to study face to face.
“I think we all want that, but the situation does not allow us to do it,” he said.
I was answering a question from Lim Guan Eng (PH-Bagan) about the lack of interaction between students and teachers through e-learning and TV Pendidikan.
Radzi said the ministry had decided to close all schools until December 17 and 18 as there would only be nine days left for students to attend classes in person after the conditional movement control order (CMCO) is lifted to most states on December 6.
In response to a question from Teo Nie Ching (PH-Kulai) about the reopening of kindergartens in Johor and Melaka after the CMCO lifting, he said that all kindergartens should remain closed, regardless of whether the state is closed or not.
He said he would refer the matter to his ministry and state education departments for resolution.
