To overcome this, National Union of the Teaching Profession (NUTP) secretary-general Harry Tan said the education ministry should allow them to take special leave so they could self-quarantine.

He said that currently, teachers needed to go on unrecorded leave before receiving a quarantine order from the district health office.

But the recent surge in infections, Tan said, has resulted in a delay in the issuance of such letters, while the pro-rated number of unrecorded leave a teacher was entitled to annually was insufficient.

“As a result, some are forced to take no-pay leave, which is unfair, while others keep silent and go to school, possibly exposing the students to the virus,” he said in a statement.

Tan said they were now appealing to the education minister to intervene and review the policy to help these teachers.

“Teachers who are given leave for quarantine can still conduct home-based teaching and learning offline such as recording lessons while students can continue learning at home,” he said.

On Wednesday, health minister Dr Adham Baba revealed that 2,617 active Covid-19 cases involved the education sector, and a few days ago, 19 schools in the Petaling district of Selangor were closed until further notice after clusters were detected.

Parents’ groups and the national teachers’ union have since demanded for all schools that have reported Covid-19 infections to be immediately closed for at least 14 days.

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