THE Education Ministry’s decision to allow schools to reopen from Sept 1 and any standard operating procedures (SOPs) that follow are based on suggestions by experts in the fields of medicine and education from all over the world, said National Union of the Teaching Profession (NUTP) secretary-general Harry Tan.
Tan is responding to former education minister Maszlee Malik’s statement yesterday questioning the rationale behind the Government’s move.
According to Maszlee, the decision was made without taking into account scientific data and without providing complete details on the SOPS that will be in place.
“NUTP believes that the MOE is aware of [these suggestions] and they have also implemented them as time went by.
“We are currently facing a pandemic and what is important is that the decisions made [by the MOE] must be guided by experts, and that there must be a strong chain of command so that confusion will not occur at the grassroot level for the teaching and learning process to be carried out successfully,” he told FocusM.
Parents and teachers cannot help but be concerned that the re-opening of schools would be a case of history repeating itself.
Schools previously reopened in April 2021 before being ordered to close again two weeks later due to the rising number of education clusters.
“The Government has given assurance on this matter and since they have the facts and statistics, we, as government teachers, will follow the MOE’s directive.
“The SOPs are dynamic and may be enhanced if there are new recommendations by the Health Ministry and the World Health Organisation, who are both authorities trusted by Malaysians,” Tan concluded. – July 23, 2021.
