Parents promise to do their part

MAINTAINING students’ safety and hygiene is not solely the teachers’ responsibility.

While she believes that teachers will do their best to maintain high safety standards in school, a motherof-two who wanted to be known as Katijah, said parents must educate their children so that they know what to do in school.

“Teachers are already doing so much.

“Parents should lighten their burden by talking about Covid-19 and its preventive measures at home,” said the housewife from Kuala Lumpur who went through the Education Ministry’s 36-page school reopening management guidelines released on June 4.

She not only made it a point to understand the standard operating procedures (SOPs) and role of the parents, teachers and school administrators, but she even took time to explain the guidelines and reasons for it to her children – one of whom is in Form Six and will be going back to school on June 24.

“I reminded my children why the SOPs are important in keeping themselves and others safe.

“The SOPs covered the basic necessities but these must be continuously updated it as more issues will pop up when school reopens.”

Jenn Poon, mother to a Form Five student, said it’s good that school is starting with the young adults first as these students are old enough to take the SOPs seriously.

The learning specialist hopes that “gaps” students faced during the movement control order (MCO) can be plugged when school reopens.

“There were tons of homework given to students, but they were not marked so students were not able to get feedback on whether they answered correctly or wrongly.”

Glad that co-curricular activities have been stopped, she said it would otherwise be even harder for teachers to enforce the SOPs.

Shamala Devi Rajoo, who has a daughter in Form Five and another in Form One, is worried whether the teachers can cope with the added responsibility of implementing the SOPs.

“It is not easy for teachers to handle teaching and checking on students’ health at the same time as not all students are cooperative,” she said, adding that there is not much Parent-Teacher Associations can do except lend a hand whenever it is needed and help keep the school compound sanitised.

Parents, she said, must acknowledge the importance of doing what is expected by the ministry to keep the children healthy while making sure that their studies are not disrupted.

She is still not convinced of the SOPs’ effectiveness.

“From the first week of school until the pandemic ends, the Health Ministry should send at least two officers to monitor the teachers and check the condition of the schools’ cleanliness,” she said.