Dato Sri Dr Sim Kui Hian
KUCHING: Pupils and students of schools allowed to reopen in Kuching, Samarahan, Serian and Padawan districts next Monday will only have three days of classes before they take a break again for the school holidays.
Local Government and Housing Minister Dato Sri Dr Sim Kui Hian said this is because of the revised school holidays, which now sees schools in Sarawak going for Term 2 Holidays from Aug 20 to 24.
“A total 213 schools involving 170,000 students will reopen from Aug 17. The experts from Sarawak Education Department recommended that even three days of schooling before school holidays starts from Aug 20 to 24 is important as we must not lose any more time on education of our children,” he said in a Facebook post yesterday.
Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah, who is Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) chairman, had announced on Tuesday that schools in Kuching, Padawan and Samarahan districts which had remained closed due to the spike in Covid-19 cases here will reopen as scheduled on Aug 17.
“We have discussed this matter in detail after considering the situation of the pandemic in these districts,” Uggah was quoted in media reports as saying.
The reopening comes after a significant decrease in Covid-19 cases in the past weeks.
SDMC on July 14 announced the postponement of the resumption of classes in these districts following an increase in Covid-19 cases in Kuching that week.
Schools in Kuching, Padawan and Samarahan districts were initially scheduled to reopen on Aug 3, having been postponed from the initial nationwide reopening of schools on July 15.
The decision involved primary classes, Remove Class as well as Forms 1 to 4 and Form 6, but not preschools, Form 5 and Upper 6 which had resumed earlier.
Schools in green zone areas outside Kuching, Padawan and Samarahan were not affected by the decision.