Education Ministry Must Answer Questions On MCO 2.0

I would like to raise a few points with regards to education in light of almost all states in Malaysia being put under Movement Control Orders (MCOs) or Conditional MCOs (CMCOs) except Sarawak and Perlis, which are under Recovery MCOs (RMCOs), as well as the nationwide Emergency.

For states under MCO, what the government, via the Ministry of Education, is basically asking is for all exam students—and their teachers—to return to school.

As I have previously noted however, we now have 2 batches of exam students to care for: for instance, we have the SPM class of 2020 (who have yet to sit for it) and 2021.

The work of teachers—which is never an easy job—will be more complicated now. They will have to manage and teach double their usual load of exam classes, while adhering to the SOPs.

This is on top of teaching online lessons to the students who must remain at home.

I have seen no indication that the Ministry or Government is providing preparation, resources, and support for teachers under these circumstances—to balance both requirements, especially for those who may be unfamiliar with the subjects they may have to teach at exam level.

At the same time, there have been reports that non-exam secondary school students are losing interest and focus on their online lessons.

What is the Ministry doing to help these students and their teachers? To reduce the risk of high dropouts when schools reopen?

What support systems are being provided for teachers, students and parents to navigate the MCO 2.0 and now Emergency restrictions? Where are the hotlines, databases for lessons and assessments? Where are the virtual

townhalls to communicate with parents?

This should have been done in the first few weeks of the pandemic in 2020.

Is the government making full use of tuition centres, individual tutors, online tuition providers and NGOs to provide space for virtual learning for B40 children who might not be able to learn at home virtually?

Only the Ministry of Education can answer these questions.