Sin Chew Daily

Primary schools nationwide began to reopen in stages from March 1, and so far, positive COVID-19 cases have been reported from more than 20 schools, much to the worry of parents.

With new cases being reported from schools, is it possible that the schools will be shut down once again so that students can learn safely from their homes? This question has drawn the attention of many.

In response to such concern, senior minister (education) Mohd Radzi Md Jidin said the education ministry will no more shut down all classes, but will make appropriate arrangements on the advice and instruction of the health ministry and MKN (national security council) in the event of drastic rise in new COVID-19 cases.

Unfortunately such reassurance has failed to allay the fears of worried parents.

Early March, the education ministry went ahead to reopen schools even as the coronavirus pandemic was nowhere near the end and daily new infection numbers were still at staggering four digits. The move has since raised skepticism among the public. Back then some even initiated an online petition to urge the minister to withdraw his decision until daily new infection numbers have come down to two digits.

With more and more schools reporting new confirmed cases, it now proves that the parents' concern has not been completely unfounded.

While the parents are also concerned about their children's schoolwork, they are very much more worried about their safety at school because it is difficult to keep safe social distances at school with so many teachers and students around. The risk is always there. We cannot blame the parents for being worried.

Sure enough the ministry has its reasons to reopen the schools. They simply cannot order the schools to shut down deliberately.

With new cases being reported, even if the authorities do not order the schools to shut down, many parents will still keep their children at home for fear of infection risk. Take for example SJK(C) Keng Koon in Bukit Tambun has recently reported more than ten COVID-19 cases. Even the school has remained open, no students have attended class. This shows that parents always prioritize their children's health and safety, and will not want to put their children at risk of infection.

Both the education and health ministries should work closer together to draw up more flexible and effective measures to ensure the students' safety. They must also have a transparent set of guidelines to inform the parents under what circumstances the school will be shut down momentarily so that there will be no wild guesses on the part of anxious parents.

In the past when the daily new infection numbers were still not too high, schools were shut down and students were put on home schooling. But now, even with new cases being reported at schools, the authorities remain assertive that they will not fully shut down the schools. Such a reasoning is hardly understandable and convincing. The authorities have the obligation to explain to the parents in a bid to allay their fears.

Even though the vaccines are already made available in the market and our national immunization program rolled out, that is not reason enough for us to let our guard down. All relevant parties must continue to stay highly cautious and alert to fend off the virus, especially at schools because it is not easy for school children to comply with the SOPs.