Jonathan Chai
KUCHING (Apr 19): Some 30 aided Chinese primary schools across the state have recorded at least one Covid-19 positive case involving either teachers or pupils, disclosed the Sarawak United Association of Chinese Primary School Boards of Management yesterday.
Given this scenario, president of the association Jonathan Chai opined that these schools should be closed completely and not on a “fragmented basis”.
“This is particularly important for those big schools in the Covid-19 red zones. I fail to understand the rationale of the health minister’s recent decision and statement that schools should remain open as the source of infection of the positive cases was from outside and not within the schools.
“Most schools, if not all, have strictly complied with the standard operating procedures (SOPs) put in place by the relevant authorities, but unfortunately, there are other potential sources of infection like the tuition centres, school buses and even the workplace of the parents and family members of the pupils which are beyond the control of the schools,” he told The Borneo Post here.
He said this when asked whether the association had recommended any infected schools to be closed in view of the current pandemic situation.
State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) chairman Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas on Saturday said that they had submitted to the Ministry of Education (MoE) a list of schools to be closed due to the Covid-19 infections in these schools.
The Deputy Chief Minister said they were still awaiting a decision from the MoE yesterday or the latest by today (Monday).
According to Chai, none of the boards of management of the aided Chinese primary schools in Kuching, Samarahan and Serian had submitted any official request to SDMC for closure of schools.
Despite so, he said the association had made an open appeal through the media on numerous occasions that the MoE should reconsider and review its ‘one-size-fits-all’ policy on the reopening of schools nationwide.
He felt that such a policy did not consider the varying degrees of the outbreak of the pandemic in different parts of Malaysia.
“While we acknowledge that it’s so much more effective for the students to learn in the classroom proper in school than through online learning at home, we have to take serious notice of the recent spike in the number of positive cases and the potential risk of having any unwanted cluster of infection in schools in Covid-19 red zones.”
Chai believed that it would be a rather difficult decision to make, which may not please everyone, saying some working parents would prefer to send their children back to school while others would, for safety reasons, prefer to have their children stay and learn at home.
“I am worried about the potential risks of cross infection especially if the students who carry the virus do not show any symptoms and if such individual remains in school for a period of time, a cluster of infection would probably form and the consequences would be devastating,” he added.