Deputy Education Minister Datuk Mohamad Alamin has appealed to parents to allow and send their children back to school as physical classes resume today.

He assured parents across the nation that schools are taking the necessary precautions to keep students safe from Covid-19.

“Do not worry about the safety of your children (after sending them back to school) because the safety of students is of paramount importance to us,” he said at a news conference after visiting two schools here.

The schools were SMK St. Thomas and SK Pendidian Khas (B) Kuching, Taman Matang Jaya.

Mohamad said overall, they were satisfied with the first back-to-school day in Sarawak, particularly here in Kuching.

According to him, students are ready to return to school for physical classes and so are schools – ready to welcome students back with strict compliance of standard operating procedures (SOPs) and guidelines set by the authorities.

At SMK St. Thomas, he said 86.2 per cent of the 111 Form 6 students returned to the school today.

He added that SK Pendidian Khas (B) Kuching reported an attendance of 61 students or 69 per cent of the 89 students today.

“These two schools show high percentage of turnout. This is a sign that our students are ready to go back to school.

“Even though we recorded some absentees, those not coming back to school were due to the reason that they were close contact to positive cases,” he said.

According to Mohamad, some of the student who were absent today was because they just completed their mandatory quarantine.

He explained that even though they had completed the quarantine, their parents wanted them to take some time off before returning to school.

“Of course there are a few parents who are not ready to send their children back to school because they have not been back to school for a long time.

“But overall, we are satisfied with the reopening of schools today,” he added.

Meanwhile, Sarawak Education director Dr Norisah Suhaili said less than one per cent of the 39,000 teachers statewide had not been vaccinated against Covid-19.

“We will continue to monitor the situation because there are those who say that they do not want to be vaccinated,” she said.

Source:
courtesy of THE BORNEO POST

by LIM HOW PIM

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