In a statement, he said this should then be followed by schools in green areas and those in areas that have already achieved herd immunity.

“It is feared that the simultaneous opening of schools across the country will only see the repeat of school clusters like before,” the Simpang Renggam MP added.

Maszlee also questioned the rationale behind the education ministry’s decision to announce the reopening of schools on Sept 1 without providing complete details on the SOPs that will be in place.

“Many parents are worried that the announcement this time will be a repeat of the same situation in April when schools reopened, only to be closed again after two weeks.

“In the end, students will have their classes disrupted again due to the ‘flip-flop’ decisions by the education ministry,” he said.

Maszlee added that if the ministry insisted on reopening schools, it should consider morning and afternoon split sessions to prevent overcrowding, as it could otherwise lead to more education sector clusters.

“However, the school sessions for SPM and STPM candidates should not be disrupted,” he said.

Maszlee also suggested that the number of students in each class be reduced and school hours shortened.

“The children should spend more time outside the classroom in the open during school sessions, as recommended by many medical experts,” he said.

On July 17, the education ministry announced that school sessions would resume in stages from Sept 1.

It said the decision was reached after taking into account the vaccination rate among teachers and administrators. At least 61.3%, or 253,366, of them had obtained their first dose of the vaccine as of July 16.

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