Report: Covid-19 cases ‘emerging’ in some in schools

KUALA LUMPUR (March 10): Covid-19 cases “are emerging in some schools” just less than two weeks after they reopened on March 1, the New Straits Times (NST) reported today.

As a result, parent Raja Nurul Huda Raja Halimul Rashid told the daily that she has petitioned on change.org to close Sekolah Kebangsaan Subang Jaya's afternoon classes after four pupils were found to be Covid-19-positive

The school had already stopped the three affected classes and placed the pupils and their 17 teachers under home quarantine but the parents as well as 300 signatories of the online petition want the “entire physical session to be stopped to break the chain of transmission”.

Raja Nurul Huda said closure of the whole session “would relieve the stress on teachers, who had to cope with the quarantine of 17 of their colleagues”.

"They can move to online learning (seamlessly) with proper schedules and approach. This is because it is difficult for a limited numbers of teachers to do both offline and online classes effectively.

"With proper online classes, learning during the temporary closure can be beneficial to all parties without leaving the quarantined students behind," she added.

M. Ravin told NST his son from another school was prevented from sitting for the SPM Chemistry and Additional Mathematics paper this week after a student was confirmed as having Covid-19 infection last Monday.

"Now he and his 13 classmates can only take their affected papers in April. He was made to take his first swab test on Friday (March 5) and his next swab test is on March 13.

"He may also be missing his Biology test on March 16 if the test results do not come out on time," Ravin revealed.

Parent Action Group for Education president Datin Noor Azimah Abdul Rahim told NST that the “standard operating procedure for the situation should be followed” but parents can also “decide whether they want to send their children to school”.

Senior Minister (Education) Datuk Dr Radzi Jidin earlier announced that primary school students would return to classes in two groups starting March 1.

Pre-schoolers as well as Year 1 and 2 pupils would be the first to return to school on March 1, while pupils in Year 3 to 6 would resume classes on March 8.

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