UMNO president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi urged the Government to exercise vigilance when schools reopen on Oct 3.
“The Education Ministry (MOE) has decided to reopen schools despite high number of COVID-19 cases. They made the decision following high vaccination rate among the people.
“But I urge the authorities to be wary of this. This involves the safety of our children and teachers. Don’t take unnecessary risks and end up repeating the same mistakes,” he said in a Facebook post.
Last month, Senior Minister (Education) Datuk Radzi Jidin announced that schools would reopen in stages from Oct 3 onwards, starting with Form 5 and Form 6 students.
However, he also said that schools under Phase One states of the National Recovery Plan (NRP) would remain closed.
Radzi added that the nationwide reopening of schools would start with exam year students in Forms 5 and 6.
“But for Phases Two and Three, the decision to reopen schools will still depend on the risk evaluation conducted in the respective states,” The Star reported him as saying.
Touching on the matter, Zahid said that one must bear in mind that school-going children are not vaccinated as they were deemed ineligible by health authorities.
Despite stricter standard operating procedures (SOP) imposed, one must see how it would really mitigate and contain COVID-19 infections in schools.
Parents may be hesitant
“Remember back in April 26, the Health Ministry (MOH) announced that 23,739 students under the age of 12 got infected with the coronavirus.
“The data shows how easily COVID-19 can spread in schools despite strict SOPs in place,” the Bagan Datuk MP stressed.
He added that back then cases were only hovering in the 2,000 mark but now, daily infection levels are at the five-digit mark.
“Therefore, I foresee parents and guardians being hesitant to send their children back to schools. Subsequently, it will create disparity between students in terms of education.
“So, I urge MOE to deliberate on their decision thoroughly. Learn from past mistakes so that we can come up with an effective strategy on this,” the former deputy prime minister concluded. – Sept 4, 2021
