‘Leave decision on reopening schools to health experts’
MIRI: Any decision to reopen schools must be left to the Health Ministry and not politicians, said Consumers Association of Miri (CAM) president George Bennett Francis.
He said health experts must be given full authority to determine if it is safe for students to return, as the country cannot afford to have new Covid-19 clusters emerging from schools, preschools, nurseries, colleges and universities.
“The Health Ministry is the expert in tackling the spread of this virus and only they should decide when it is safe for children to return to school.
“Politicians must abide with the decision because opening schools too early will risk creating another cluster,” he said yesterday.
George said so long as the Covid-19 situation in the country is not under control and no vaccine available, the government should not consider allowing classes to resume.
Echoing the call was concerned parent Sidek Sanai, who said the health and safety of students are the top priority.
“We can see reports in social media of children in China and Italy returning to school after a few months of closure, only for them to get infected with Covid19 even though safety measures were taken by school authorities,” he said when contacted.
Sidek said he personally felt that schools should only be allowed to reopen next year, to give enough time for the government to work out a stricter standard operating procedure (SOP) for schools in order to prevent the emergence of new clusters.
“My worry is that it would be hard to enforce social distancing in schools as the children would want to gather and play with their friends especially during recess,” he said.
Sarawak Bumiputera Chamber of Entrepreneurs (DUBS) Miri secretary Abdul Razak Joni meanwhile said the focus now should be on upgrading and widening the country’s internet coverage to enable all students to have access to online learning.
“We don’t know when the pandemic will stop or how long it will take for a vaccine to become available. It is best that students not return to school and instead focus on online learning, to prevent a second wave of infections from occurring,” he said.
Abdul Razak however felt that an exemption could be given for Form 5 and Form 6 students to return to school and prepare for their examinations.