After schools reopened on 24th June for the secondary schoolchildren (exam takers) with 92.4% attendance and 1st July for preschools and kindergarten students equipped with new norm compliance guidelines, the Ministry of Education (KPM) made an announcement for the schools to reopen fully by 22nd July 2020. The reopening was precipitated after taking into account that the home-based learning through online to be difficult for students with limited access to technology. The students may have their progress delayed and will cause them to lose interest in learning.
Working closely with the Ministry of Health (MOH) and National Security Council (MKN), KPM has formulated three different models as school reopening guidelines for different capacities. Single session model for schools that have enough classrooms and space to social distance, two sessions model for schools that need more space for social distancing and third model is a shift model, a hybrid option where they execute face to face session and home-based learning alternately. List of schools observing each model would be released within the week of announcement.
Form 1 to Form 4 students and Form 6 students attending their first semester in 2020 are scheduled to go back to school on 15th July 2020 together with primary school students’ Standard 5 and 6. Standard 1 to 4 students will attend on 22nd July 2020. Private education institutions like tuition centres and after school lesson centres could open on the 15th July as well.
Boarding schools are allowed to take in the first batch of students since 24th June by having them occupy the lower bunk beds for 14 days before they shift to the upper bed to allow the second batch of students to attend schools afterwards. This cycle is expected to take 28 to 42 days for each school to fully admit all its students.
There is also a high likelihood that the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) exams for the year 2020 would take place early January 2021 to enable catching up with lost lesson time that the lockdown brought upon.
Moving forward, the MOE will look into ways for feasible learning methods if the pandemic persists, ensuring students’ learning journey is never disrupted.
