KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 23: The Education Ministry will implement 50 per cent capacity of classes and rotation of students for face-to-face school sessions when schools reopen on Oct 3.
Education Minister Datuk Dr Mohd Radzi Mohd Jidin said the reopening of schools will be implemented in stages based on phases of the National Recovery Plan (NRP).
Students sitting for public examinations in States under Phase Four of NRP will be prioritised and subsequently on Oct 17, 50 per cent of secondary school students and 50 per cent of primary school students will gradually attend physical classes.
By the end of October, he said the other 50 per cent will be required to attend physical classes while students who are currently undergoing home-based teaching and learning (PdPR) will continue to do so.
For states under Phase 2 of the NRP, Mohd Radzi said face-to-face classes are allowed for local and international schools whose students will be sitting for public examinations in the near future.
He said private kindergartens are allowed to open for children whose parents are both working while other students will continue with PdPR.
“A comprehensive plan on the reopening of schools was prepared to ensure that students can return back to schools for face-to-face learning in a safe environment.
“Based on the plan, the Education Ministry has limited the capacity of classes to 50 per cent of the overall enrolment.
“For that, the approach which is utilised is to limit the capacity of students in a class to 50 per cent of the class,” he said at Parliament today.
Mohd Radzi was replying to Bayan Baru MP Sim Tze Tin who sought clarification and details over the reopening of schools for face-to-face learning sessions as well as the simultaneous implementation of face-to-face classes and online PdPR by teachers.
Mohd Radzi added that students will be rotated when attending face-to-face classes on a weekly basis.
He said students in a class will be divided into two groups, one group attending physical classes and the other attending PdPR.
He added teachers will allocate activities and exercises for the group attending PdPR.
Mohd Radzi said the rotation system will be implemented for all classes except for certain groups of students from boarding schools and schools with less students, until further notice from the Education Ministry.
He explained that limiting the capacity of students to physical classes when schools reopen would facilitate physical distancing and ease of monitoring.
Mohd Radzi said the decision to reopen schools was made after in-depth discussions and suggestions from various parties after taking into various factors including the transmission of the Covid-19 Delta variant.
He explained that the reason to reopen schools was important to reacquaint students with the physical learning environment as schools were closed for a long time due to the Covid-19 pandemic. — DayakDaily
