A teacher in Keningau, who wished to remain anonymous, told FMT many were worried about the effectiveness of PdPR following the movement control order, as children were being left behind in their studies.

While her school had prepared weekly learning modules for those unable to attend PdPR online, she said it had been difficult to monitor students’ developments from afar.

“Parents will collect the modules and assignments at the school and send them back a week later. This is the only way we can help those without internet access or gadgets.

“As for students who are able to attend online classes, there is no guarantee that they fully understand the lessons because there is no way to tell how they completed their assignments. Perhaps their parents helped them or they referred to other resources, we don’t know,” she told FMT.

Since the academic year began on Jan 20, the teacher said attendance for online classes have only been around 40% to 70%, as many of her students lived in areas that did not have proper internet connectivity.

Another teacher in the same district said the PdPR programme had been just as challenging for teachers as it was for students and parents.

“Parents may have to put in extra effort to help their children undergo PdPR lessons, while us teachers have doubled our workload to ensure our students receive proper education.”

The teacher said the online learning process had been relatively slow, adding that it had shown there was a significant gap between the level of understanding among different students in the same year.

“However, we always do our best. Although we cannot expect students to fully understand the lessons, we are aware that many parents have had to become temporary teachers for the sake of their children.

“We pray that the situation will improve after this. We miss our students and we are worried for their condition throughout the PdPR programme,” the teacher said.