Too much red tape, allow schools to decide whether to close, says Sabah MP

 

Parents accompanying their children for the swab test in Likas today.

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah DAP’s Kota Kinabalu MP Chan Foong Hin has called on the education ministry to give schools the authority to decide quickly whether to close in the event of Covid-19 cases being found in their schools.

This comes after a rise in the number of infections in schools in the state capital. As of yesterday, nine cases involving students were detected in three primary and one secondary school here.

Chan said the decentralisation of decision-making powers to schools — with the headmasters, the board of directors and the parent-teacher associations voting to close their respective schools — could help curb further infections from occurring.

He said schools here were unable to act swiftly because of the system in place now and hesitation of decision-makers at the top.

“The district Education Department should decentralise the decision-making and authorise schools to independently decide whether to close classrooms or even the entire school,” he told FMT.

“What I heard from the schools is that after a Covid-19 case is confirmed, they need to report to the district Education Department to seek permission to just close the affected classroom.

“But they end up with no clear answers or instructions. The district Education Department also tells the schools not to disclose the number of cases. So these schools face difficulties on what they should do next.

“There is no need for so much red tape. Since the bureaucrats dare not act decisively, it is better to let the individual schools make their own decisions.”

In the latest case today, Year Three pupils at a school here were told to take swab tests after one of their classmates was found to have contracted the virus.

The pupils, accompanied by their parents, were seen queuing outside the Likas screening centre here after the school issued a notice yesterday that the Kota Kinabalu Health Department had instructed all the Year Three pupils at the school to undergo the test today.

When contacted, Sabah’s official Covid-19 spokesman Masidi Manjun said six infections had been confirmed so far at three primary schools in the city and Likas, and three cases at a secondary school here.

One teacher was also found positive for Covid-19 at a primary school in Likas last February.

So far, two clusters involving boarding schools have been detected in Sabah, namely the Jalan Labuk cluster in Sandakan and the Khidmat cluster here, with 80 cases coming from the Sekolah Menengah Agama Kota Kinabalu, which has been placed under an enhanced movement control order.

Chan said the education authorities should also allow the schools to be open and transparent when it comes to data such as the number of Covid-19 infections at the schools.

“This must be communicated to parents as soon as possible. This can prevent unverified rumours from being spread in the community, causing panic among parents, teachers and students.

“This can also help parents decide whether to send their children to school.”

He also urged the government to treat teachers as frontliners and give them priority to be vaccinated.

“Allow the teachers to get the jabs at the government hospitals and clinics. They should not have to wait for their turn on MySejahtera.

“When a student is found positive, it is easy to track down the classrooms and students that they had close contact with. When a teacher is infected, more than one classroom could be affected.

“All MPs have got their vaccination and yet we don’t have Parliament sittings to go to but teachers are out there doing their work and facing this risk almost every day,” Chan said. - FMT