News Credit: Free Malaysia Today
PETALING JAYA: As parents began taking their children to school to start the new academic year, a question mark remains about whether schools should reopen in January, as in the days before Covid-19.
Two parents’ groups had differing views on whether to revert to the January start or continue with the change to March, as in the past two years, after Covid-19 lockdowns disrupted the school calendars.
Mak Chee Kin, head of a parents’ group in Melaka, said the education ministry should “adjust the school year back to January the soonest” by cutting down on unnecessary activities.
Mak said one option would be for additional classes to be held on Saturdays.
However, Noor Azimah Abdul Rahim, who heads another parents’ group, said parents “should not be in a hurry” to push for a January start.
She said schoolchildren must first reach the level required of them before they progress to the next standard.
“It cannot be ignored that there has been learning loss post-Covid, and it still exists as the gap has not been bridged,” she said. “Bringing forward the academic year should be a gradual process.”
The head of a consultative council of national parents-teacher associations said that as the March start was only recently introduced, “let’s give this some time”. Children would have more time to catch up with the time lost when the pandemic disrupted their studies.
The council’s president, Ali Hasan, said among the reasons the education ministry would have considered before deciding not to return to a January start was the monsoon season.
Last week, director-general of education Pkharuddin Ghazali said the ministry has no plans to begin the new school year in January. He said school competitions, celebrations and ceremonies that have no significant impact on schoolchildren would not be held.
The 2023-2024 school year began in Kelantan, Terengganu, Kedah and Johor yesterday, while schools elsewhere reopen today.
