According to Senior Education Minister Datuk Dr Radzi Jidin, a group of teachers’ refusal to receive the COVID-19 vaccine has had a slight impact on the teaching and learning process in schools.
Despite the fact that their number (unvaccinated) is just around 2,000 out of a rough total of 415,000 teachers in the country, he claims it has still impacted school administration.
“The number is very small but as there are some of such teachers teaching the same subject, how (do we) teach (the subject)?
“There are also such teachers who are the only ones teaching certain subjects, so these schools would have no teachers for these subjects,” he told reporters after viewing the first day of school at Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan (SMK) Tunku Kurshiah on the 4th of October.
The decision to move unvaccinated teachers to other locations is not a threat, according to Radzi, but it does involve the school administration, as the Public Service Department requires civil officials to be vaccinated by the 1st of November.
Meanwhile, he stated that the Ministry of Education is currently reviewing the proposal to move the start of the school year from January to March, with the next year’s session serving as a reference.
He went on to say that the ministry had taken into account the engagement with stakeholders, such as parents and teachers who had provided constructive input, including on the administration of exams during the monsoon season in some states.
