Schools To Close And Students To Return To Home-Based Learning After Hari Raya Break

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Education Minister Datuk Dr Radzi Jidin stated that students will return to their education session at home through the home-based teaching and learning method (PdPR), reported New Straits Times.

Schools nationwide will then begin their two-week long term break at the end of May. This will mean that students will face a month-long school closure.

The mandate will affect 2.7 million students at 7,780 primary schools and another 2.03 million at secondary schools nationwide.

Students from daily and full boarding schools will be allowed to return home for Hari Raya Aidilfitri celebrations.

According to Bernama, Group A schools — which include schools in Johor, Kedah, Kelantan, and Terengganu — will undergo PdPR from 16 to 27 May. 

Meanwhile, Group B schools — which include schools in in Perlis, Penang, Perak, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, Melaka, Pahang, Sabah, Sarawak, Kuala Lumpur, Labuan, and Putrajaya — will undergo PdPR from 17 to 28 May.

Radzi stated that the students will commence their two-long term break from 28 May to 12 June (16 days) for Group A schools, and 29 May to 13 June (16 days) for Group B schools as initially planned. 

The announcement comes after an outbreak of COVID-19 clusters in education institutions across the country, according to The Malaysian Reserve.

"We fear that if something was not done, the virus could spread among children and teachers when the school session resumes after the school holidays for the Hari Raya Aidilfitri," New Straits Times quoted the Education Minister as saying.

He told reporters during a media briefing yesterday, 27 April, that the chances for students and teachers contracting COVID-19 outside of school is high.

Radzi mentioned that the announcement for the implementation of PdPR was made early so that teachers will be able to prepare for the online learning and teaching lessons.

He also said that PdPR is not only limited to online methods, but also offline arrangements that best suit the students.

"What is important here is to protect the students and teachers from the risk of getting infected by the virus after returning to the schools (due to the sporadic cases within the community) as well as the ensure that their education are not affected by the on-going pandemic," Radzi explained.