High SOP compliance at schools - Radzi

Senior Education Minister Datuk Dr Radzi Jidin said the decision to give priority to primary school pupils to attend school sessions earlier was to give them space to adapt to the situation at school by adhering to the standard operating procedure (SOP) set.

"'Alhamdulillah' (praise be to Allah), compliance with the SOP in schools is good. Sometimes we think that these children will not be obedient, but if we go and see for ourselves, and I used to visit school without informing of my presence prior, we can see that these children do comply with the SOP, especially in the classrooms.

"That is why in our schools we minimise their movements, we have discussed with the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the National Security Council (MKN) on the best approach, which is to minimise movement.

"Because it is difficult to control when there are too many movements, but in school the movement is limited," he said at a press conference after the One-Year Malaysia Prihatin Keynote Address ceremony here today.

Apart from that, Radzi said he managed to visit two schools today and found that parents also complied with the guidelines set by only sending their children to the school gate before the students were brought into the classroom by their respective teachers.

Radzi said the Ministry of Education had informed the school of various models that could be used during the dispersal period, which could be held in stages to ensure that not too many students were being dispersed at any one time.

"The headmaster can gauge the situation in the school, about the road or congestion, and can choose what the best approach to disperse the students.

"That is why for this week's session, we are giving flexibility for them to do it in stages but it depends on the capacity of the school," he said.

He said in order for the matter to be successful, cooperation from parents was crucial to ensure that congestion was reduced in front of the school so that all complied with the SOP that had been set.