39°C in Perlis today, decision on schools tomorrow

Education Ministry to discuss the hot weather and if schools in some areas should be closed.

KOTA BHARU: A decision will be taken on Monday whether schools in certain areas will be closed because of the extremely hot weather, Education Minister Mahdzir Khalid said today.

He said his ministry was monitoring the hot weather situation and temperatures of as high as 39.2 degrees Celsius had been recorded in Kedah and Perlis.

“Tomorrow we will decide whether schools in certain areas should be closed if the temperature continues to rise exceeding 39 degrees Celsius without any sign of dropping,” he told reporters after attending a gathering with principals and headmasters of schools in Kelantan.

Mahdzir said a special committee at the ministry level chaired by the director-general of education, Dr Khair Mohamad Yusof, would study and make a decision concerning the closure of the schools concerned.

He said his ministry was also getting weather information from time to time from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment as well as the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation.

He said he had issued a directive for all activities outside the classroom to be stopped following the extremely hot weather.

The hot and dry weather caused by the El Nino phenomenon is predicted to end only in May or June. Today is the Spring Equinox, when the sun crosses the equator, and higher temperatures were expected across the country.

— BERNAMA