Its director-general, Habibah Abdul Rahim, said parents were confident about sending their children to school as long as standard operating procedures were followed strictly.
She agreed that the ministry had initially faced difficulties after the movement control order (MCO) was implemented last year and schools had to be shut to curb the transmission of the virus.
However, she said guidelines had been improved for the reopening of schools to ensure safety of students, teachers and staff.
“Children need to be screened when they enter school, tables and chairs must be placed at a proper distance from each other in classrooms and more hand wash basins must be available,” she told civil society organisations and the G25 Malaysia movement during a webinar held with Edunity Foundation.
Habibah said face masks were compulsory in schools and the ministry was confident that with proper compliance, lessons could proceed without any interruptions.
“We have not heard of clusters coming from schools,” Habibah said, adding that any infection was likely from the community itself.
On March 10, four pupils of SK Subang Jaya were found to be Covid-19 positive and a petition was launched to close the entire afternoon session, for pupils in Years One to Three.
The petition was registered on change.org by Raja Nurul Huda Raja Halimul Rashid, calling on the Petaling Perdana district education office to take immediate action although the four pupils were not infected at school.
Despite the active cases reported, the school only shut down three classes and put the affected pupils and 17 teachers under home quarantine.
During the webinar, Parent Action Group for Education (PAGE) president Noor Azimah Abdul Rahim touched on her observations when visiting one of the top schools in Kuala Lumpur. She said the teachers were coming in late to class and not making use of the time allocated to interact closely with their students.
Azimah urged teachers to be punctual during their online classes and not to look for shortcuts while teaching online.
During the forum, Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) chairman Fadhlullah Suhaimi Abdul Malek said demand for internet connectivity had increased during the pandemic, especially in rural areas.
He added that data usage was largely still urban-centric while in the rural areas, they depended more on voice messaging which did not require good connectivity.
Due to poor connectivity, Fadhlullah said service providers are now moving aggressively on 5G coverage, which assures faster and broader internet access.