Schools in Sabah ordered not to hold any outside activities
KOTA KINABALU: State Education Department (JPNS) director Datuk Raisin Saidin has ordered schools not to hold any activities outside the classrooms due to the hazy weather affecting the state.
Raisin urged the schools to refer to the Ministry of Education guideline when dealing with such issue and to always refer to the Meteorological Department reports and Ministry of Health advice.
“I would like to remind that all activities held outside the classrooms are prohibited now. I also call on the school management to ensure health and welfare of the students is always taken care of.
“The students themselves should exercise and drink a lot of water,” he told reporters during the ‘Semarah Kasih Ramadan’ programme and breaking fast ceremony hosted by the State Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (KSTI) at Magellan Sutera here on Friday.
Raisin said schools that record high Air Pollution Index (API) levels which can cause harm to the students are allowed to close operations according to the set guideline. He said several schools in Tuaran have been closed due to dangerously high API levels, following the fire at the Kayu Madang landfill in Telipok.
The Fire and Rescue Department had put out the fire which broke out on Sunday.
Meanwhile, during the ‘Semarah Kasih’ programme, the District Education Offices (PPD) of Kota Kinabalu, Penampang, Papar and Tuaran each received RM15,000 funding from KSTI to implement Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) programmes in the state.
The funding was handed over by KSTI Assistant Minister Datuk Harun Durabi, who also presented a donation to 30 students from Madrasah Tahfiz Al-Quran Al-Karim in Kampung Benoni, Papar, during the ceremony which saw about 300 members and officials of ministries, departments and agencies under KSTI in attendance.
Raisin said the funding is specifically to implement the STEM Festival this year, which will offer more interesting activities this time around in order to provide more effective exposure to school students on STEM, ultimately to produce more youth who are creative, innovative and knowledgeable.
“With this, we hope to attract more students to take STEM subjects as last year alone, JPNS managed to reach 28.78 per cent, and so we hope that this year the figure will increase to 35 per cent.
“This is the goal of JPNS and desire of the State Government under the Sabah Maju Jaya (SMJ) aspiration,” he said.