SENIOR Education Minister Datuk Radzi Jidin has assured the public that the Ministry of Education (MOE) will not hastily order the closure of schools following the emergence of COVID-19 cases in some schools just less than a month after they reopened on March 1.
But let’s face it: the MOE’s decision to order schools to reopen had been a hasty decision that had cost teachers and students alike.
This is clear from the number of school-related cases in the recent days. SK Subang Jaya, for example, had four students infected with COVID-19. The school had moved to shut down the three affected classes and put the pupils and their 17 teachers under home quarantine.
In SJK (C) Keng Koon in Simpang Ampat, a teacher and 15 pupils have tested positive for COVID-19, while most recently, SJK (C) Tung Hua in Sibu had been ordered to close until further notice after three pupils tested positive for the coronavirus.
Many people fail to understand that this doesn’t just concern pupil and teachers, but a whole community that lives beyond the school walls as well. Those in the same household or close contacts that share the same space as the infected students and teachers, too, would need to be quarantined, and this would in turn create a too long and too complicated chain of transmission.
Every time there is a suspected case, the affected class or teacher would need to be quarantined. What would happen to the students who aren’t affected, then? Surely they would be left to self-study, and if this happens too often, what is the purpose of reopening schools in the first place?
Risk is, unfortunately, ever-present in the classroom due to the insufficient physical distancing between tables due to space constraint and the fact that people still need to remove their masks to eat, and no amount of masking and hand-washing is going to change the fact.
As such, parents must be responsible and not send their children to school if the child is unwell, or if there are family members living in the same household who are unwell. Although it might very well turn out to not be COVID-19, sometimes it’s better to be safe than sorry.
The Government, too, needs to rethink the decision to allow schools to reopen, or fine-tune the existing SOPs.
It was previously said that as long as the SOPs are followed, students and teachers will be able to teach and learn in a safe environment. Unfortunately, this safe environment is not so safe anymore, and so, the decision to keep schools open needs some serious reconsidering.
Think about it: one person can infect 10, and 10 people can infect hundreds more. Before we even know it, there would soon be a spike in cases once again, and if that ever happens, there will truly be no end in sight for Malaysia. – March 24, 2021
