By Karen Bong
KUCHING, June 17: School buses and vans can operate at full capacity when schools reopen on June 24.
State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) chairman Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas emphasised that the operators are to adhere to the strict standard operating procedures (SOP) issued by the Ministry of Transport (MOT) Sarawak.
This follows the announcement by the Ministry of Education that schools nationwide, including Sarawak, will reopen in phases starting June 24 and students sitting for public and international exams including SPM, SVM, STAM and STPM will be the first batch of learners to return to classes.
In Sarawak, this will involve 34,306 Form Five students and 6,782 Upper Six students in 188 secondary schools including Sekolah Agama, Technic Schools and Vocational Colleges.
On the mandatory 14-day quarantine for teachers from Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Labuan returning to work in Sarawak which could hinder the resumption of classes, Uggah said their travels are being planned and remained optimistic they will be on time.
“School resumption is on June 24 and for examination classes only so the number of teachers involved are not that large.
“I was made to understand that 50 of the teachers have arrived and the process is still going on,” he told a daily press conference on Covid-19 here today.
Meanwhile, the Deputy Chief Minister also informed that express bus and stage bus services can also operate at full capacity starting today (June 17) with strict SOP in place which can be obtained from the MOT Sarawak.
On an unrelated sector, night, day and weekend markets are allowed to operate from June 20 while Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) participants staying in Malaysia during the Movement Control Order (MCO) and have completed quarantine and Covid-19 tests are allowed to enter Sarawak without the need to undergo another round of quarantine.—DayakDaily
