Schools in Selangor, KL and Putrajaya to close from tomorrow

 

All schools in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya will be closed beginning tomorrow ahead of the originally planned date.

This comes after Putrajaya's decision to place six districts in Selangor and the whole of Kuala Lumpur under a movement control order (MCO) beginning May 6 and May 7 respectively.

The lockdown is not imposed on Putrajaya and three northern districts in Selangor - Kuala Selangor, Ulu Selangor and Sabak Bernam. These areas will remain under a conditional MCO.

In a statement today, the Education Ministry said all schools in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya will be closed from tomorrow onwards in order to reduce the community movements.

"The Education Ministry has considered the decision by the Selangor Special Committee on Safety on May 5 which proposed all schools to be closed from May 6 until 12. This proposal was an effort to limit movement in the community following spikes in Covid-19 cases in Selangor.

"Taking into consideration that there are only two days left for this school session, the ministry has decided that all schools in Selangor are to be closed on May 6 and 7, adding the ministry then extended the decision to cover both Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya.

"The decision was made to reduce community mobility and interstate travel as both territories are bordering the affected districts in Selangor," said the ministry.

According to a circular issued by the Selangor Education Department today, the closure will continue until May 12 for the Hari Raya holidays.

"The closure will continue for the Hari Raya Aidilfitri holidays as what the ministry has announced on April 26," said the circular, signed by Selangor Education Department director Izmi Ismail.

The document, which had gone viral on social media, has been confirmed as true by an official in the ministry.

Home learning for two weeks

The Education Ministry had scheduled the Hari Raya Aidilfitri school holidays for this year to start from May 7 until 15 for Group A schools and from May 8 to 16 for Group B schools.

Group A schools are those located in states where their official school days are from Sunday until Thursday while Group B are schools are in states where their schooling days are from Monday till Friday.

Students will not need to return to school right after the festive break as the ministry has decided that school sessions will be held online for two weeks after the Raya holidays through the home-based teaching and learning method (PdPR).

Education Minister Mohd Radzi Md Jidin had said the decision was made to avoid the risk of Covid-19 infections in schools after the holidays.

After the PdPR period, students will continue their term holidays from May 28 to June 12 for group A schools and May 29 to June 13 for group B schools.

For the record, the government decided to once again place Selangor under a movement control order for 12 days beginning tomorrow (May 6) until May 17 due to the high number of new positive Covid-19 cases recorded in the state. - Mkini