Come up with better ways to prepare students for exams – MP

SANDAKAN: Member of Parliament for Sandakan, Vivian Wong has urged the Ministry of Education (MOE) to immediately come up with better ways of preparing our students for the upcoming Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) and Sijil Tinggi Pelajaran Malaysia (STPM) after more schools in the district were closed after teachers and students tested positive for Covid-19.

It was reported in local media yesterday that four schools in the district, SMK Elopura Bestari, SMK Batu Sapi, SMK Perempuan Sandakan and SM St Mary were forced to closed for disinfection as a number of teachers and students had tested positive for Covid-19.

“The rate at which our teachers and students are getting infected with Covid-19 is alarming. The MOE must review the situation immediately and come up with an appropriate response to help the schools and our SPM and STPM students. We cannot afford to put our teachers and students at risk any further,” said Vivian.

According to Vivian, she went to check on a few schools last week when school reopened for SPM and STPM classes.

While she understood that

SOP is strictly adhered to inside the school compound during classes, but things were rather chaotic after school hours when students were outside the school compound, with groups gathering at the bus stop for chit chat without observing social distance and taking off their face masks.

She said the teachers are already stressed and overloaded with teaching work, we cannot expect them to police the students.

“Last November when the MOE ordered all schools to be closed, the total number of active Covid cases in the country was just 11,689. Now our active cases have breached 41,000 and MOE still insists our schools to continue? I totally agreed with former deputy Education Minister Teo Nie Ching that the MOE must stop adopting a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach when it comes to preparing our students for national examinations.

“Instead the MOE and the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia should work together to provide viable options, such as special online learning channels, to those who have easy access to the internet to continue their lessons at home,” she added.