143,000 students return to school - Radzi

KUALA PILAH: A total of 143,000 students nationwide, except in Kedah and Johor, have started face-to-face school sessions today and yesterday, after all schools in the country were closed for about six months due to the spread of COVID-19.

Senior Education Minister Datuk Dr Radzi Jidin said of the total, 94,000 students from schools in Group B - Negeri Sembilan, Pahang, Melaka, Selangor, Federal Territory (FT) of Putrajaya, FT of Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Perak, Sabah, Perlis, Sarawak and FT of Labuan - began their face-to-face school sessions today.

The remaining were students in Group A involving Terengganu, Kelantan and Langkawi who returned to school yesterday.

"Overall, the attendance rate is very good and procedures and guidelines for school reopening are also well complied with.

"The ministry's approach of bringing the students back to school is because we want our education system to move again," he told reporters after observing the first day of school at Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan (SMK) Tunku Kurshiah here today.

Earlier, Radzi also visited several schools including SMK Tuanku Ampuan Durah in Seremban as well as SMK Tunku Muhammad and Sekolah Menengah Sains Tunku Jaafar in Kuala Pilah.

Meanwhile, he said the response from parents was very encouraging, however, some of them still felt that this was not the right time to send their children back to school as they are worried about the COVID-19 situation.

Commenting further, Radzi said no action would be taken against parents and they have the option not to send their children to school but they have to notify the school in advance.

"The trend is similar when we reopened schools in June last year and early March this year. Some parents chose not to send their children to school in the early stage but over time, we can see that the attendance rate is improving," he said.

He added that the attendance rate of Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) candidates and Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia (STPM) semester two students was also very good.

-- BERNAMA