Please allow students to go home

THE university in Kuching where my daughter is studying has just announced that the start of the new semester will be postponed to June 2020.

I sincerely hope the Higher Education Ministry will allow students, especially those who study in east Malaysia and live in the peninsula and vice versa whose new semesters have been postponed due to the movement control order (MCO), to go home to their families.

I realise that this would involve thousands of students moving about, but this could be done in a staggered and orderly manner.

I am sure the minister would understand that staying in “lockdown” in the university with no lessons going on is not ideal from a psychological standpoint for the students.

They have already gone through two weeks of self-quarantine and will undergo another two more until April 14, so they should be “safe” to travel back to their home towns.

And if they are allowed to go home, flights must also be arranged for them since most airlines have suspended their operations while others are charging exorbitant prices for tickets.

If we can spend millions of ringgit to bring home students and Malaysians from overseas, surely we can allow these local students to spend the MCO period in the comfort of their own homes.

It will be a great psychological boost for them in these trying times, besides reducing the cost of maintaining them on campus.

I hope the Higher Education Ministry and the universities concerned will pay serious attention to this matter if they are already not doing so. We want our children back home with us.