Datuk Rozalix Edi Wahab
KUCHING (July 18): The Mimbar Permuafakatan Ibu Bapa Malaysia (Mapim) Sarawak supports the Ministry of Education’s (MOE) announcement to extend the home-based teaching and learning (PdPR) until Aug 31 in light of the Covid-19 situation.
Its president Datuk Rozalix Edi Wahab hailed the PdPR extension as a good move which had taken into account the safety and health factors of school-going children.
“It is widely known that children under the age of 18 have not been given the Covid-19 vaccine and when they are not vaccinated, the risk of them being exposed to the virus is higher,” he said today when commenting on the MOE’s announcement that schools will resume physical classes in stages from Sept 1.
Rozalix said they fully supported the ministry’s decision to extend the PdPR until end of next month.
According to him, there are students and parents who are bound to be affected by the PdPR.
Despite so, he opined that it is more important to place the safety and health of children and teachers above all during this pandemic.
Nevertheless, Rozalix said the MoE should consider allowing students who will be sitting for the 2020 Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysian (STPM) and Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) examinations to resume face-to-face learning first.
He said this is to avoid seeing these public examinations being postponed like what happened last year.
He also appealed to all to strictly comply with the standard operating procedures (SOP) to curb the spread of Covid-19 as schools reopen in stages from Sept 1.
The MOE announced in a statement yesterday that schools will reopen in stages for physical classes from Sept 1.
This applies to all government schools, government-aided schools, private schools and educational institutions registered with the ministry.
However, this ruling is subject to change depending on the latest risk assessments by the Ministry of Health and National Security Council.
MOE said it will inform further details on the reopening of schools for face-to-face learning at least one week before schools open.
Schools in Malaysia have been closed since early May after the pandemic situation heightened with some schools recording positive cases. Presently, they are on mid-year break from July 16 to 24.
Primary school pupils had returned to school in March and secondary school students resumed their physical classes in April.