by DayakDaily Team
KUCHING, Feb 8: Schools affected by the flood in Sarawak and Sabah will implement online learning if they are unable to reopen on time for the first academic semester this year, the Ministry of Education (MoE) says.
According to a news report by Bernama, Minister of Education Fadhlina Sidek said for flood-affected schools in Sarawak and Sabah unable to reopen on time, online learning will be implemented.
She had also noted that teachers are already prepared with online learning materials and activity modules.
On the cost of repairing damages caused by the flood in East Malaysia, she said that initial assessments by the ministry indicated a large number of schools and ministry premises have been affected by the recent floods and therefore, the cost will likely be very high.
“There are many places we never expected to flood, especially in locations that have never experienced flooding before. Some of our schools have suffered ‘total loss’, and we are currently identifying all affected MoE premises, as well as assessing the costs involved.
“We expect the costs to be very high because the initial monitoring shows that a large number of premises have been impacted. That is why, I mentioned earlier that there are places we never anticipated to flood.
“This makes our preparation even more crucial, as we only have on week left before the school term begins,” she was quoted as saying by Bernama to reporters after officiating the ‘Ceria ke Sekolah’ programme by Tenaga Nasiaonal Bhd (TNB) at Nibong Tebal, Penang today.
She also hoped that weather conditions would improve so the cleaning process could be completed and schools could resume operations as scheduled and to ensure students can return for face-to-face learning.
According to the official academic calender for 2025/2026, schools in Sabah and Sarawak are expected to start the first 2025 school semester on Feb 17.
Last week, the Sarawak Education Department reported that 164 schools were affected by the flood in Sarawak.
Currently, the flood situation in the State can be seen as improving with the Civil Defence Force (APM) reporting that as at 8am today, 3,921 flood evacuees are still taking shelter at temporary relief centres (PPS) across Sarawak.
This is a significant decline from 4,705 evacuees reported yesterday morning. – DayakDaily
