Back To School Under the New Normal

Today 1st July 2020, The Menteri Kanan Pendidikan Dr. Radzi Jidin addressed the nation in a live telecast. Below is a brief summary of the press conference.

Back to School Under the New Normal
Students are to return to school under the following schedule.

15th July 2020

Standard 5 & 6
Form 1 - Form 4

22nd July 2020

Standard 1 - Standard 4

Schools will apply the following models for back to school depending on the school's capacity.

Model 1 = All students return to school at the same time (for small schools with enough capacity to practice social distancing)

Model 2 = Observe dual or two sessions (for schools which are unable to accommodate all students)

Model 3 = Rotation system (for large schools which cannot apply Models 1 or 2) *

* Schools doing the rotation system will have a hybrid system of lessons in classrooms + online learning.
MOE (Ministry of Education) will list down the school and the type of models to be applied by the school one week before school reopens.

Tuition centres registered with KPM may start operating with effect from 15th July 2020.

SOP during Recess
School recess and canteen must have the following SOP in place.

1. Social Distancing must be followed
2. Food must be packed

Students are encouraged to bring food from home. Schools may have staggered recess. In some schools, students can buy packed food from canteen and return to their classrooms to have their meal. In others, pre-ordered food will be sent to the classroom. Either method is fine as long as the two SOP listed above are followed ie social distancing and packing of food is observed.

What about the school holidays?

Recently the MOE amended the school calendar. Below is the new amended school calendar for 2020. The mid term school holidays is expected to be from 20th August to 24th August 2020. 





Is It Safe To Return To School?
Let's have a look at the Covid 19 statistics in Malaysia for 1st July 2020.

Recovered = 21 cases
New Positive Cases = 1 (1 imported case and 0 local transmission case)
No of deaths = 0
No of cases in ICU = 4
No of cases requiring ventilator = 2

While the numbers look promising, we must not let down our guard. We need to continue to be vigilant to fight against Covid 19 so long as a vaccine has not yet been found and world infection numbers are still rising.