Parent Action Group for Education (PAGE) chairman Noor Azimah Abdul Rahim said it was time for parents to decide whether their children should be in school and take responsibility for their education.
Azimah said students not going to school was not an option as all parents would agree that being in school helps in their children’s development, reiterating that hybrid learning could be the way forward.
She added that it was also likely that all adults would be vaccinated by the end of October and therefore, it would be safe to reopen schools next month.
“In the meantime, parents have to educate their children on the importance of following SOPs, as not doing so will bring dire consequences. Adults have to show a good example too,” she told FMT.
Azimah also said that all children aged 16 and 17 should be prioritised for the Covid-19 vaccine.
Sarawak Teachers’ Union (STU) president Adam Prakash Abdullah also welcomed the education ministry’s decision to resume schools in stages adding that this would give time for relevant authorities to reassess the situation and make recommendations on whether it is safe to reopen schools or otherwise.
Adam said it would also give time for all teachers to get vaccinated as well as prepare their classrooms for the return of the students.
“STU understands that the rise of the spread of the Delta variant is very worrying and therefore parents are reluctant to allow their children to return to schools.
“However, we believe the education ministry will make a good decision for the benefit of the population, especially teachers and children,” he said.
Adam also said that if parents were still worried about their children’s safety in schools, perhaps SPM or STPM candidates could be allowed to return to schools first to allow them to prepare for their examinations since there are only a few weeks left to complete the school academic calendar.
As of Aug 30, the health ministry reported 41 fatalities under the age of 17, as compared with only six in all of 2020 from Covid-19.
The ministry said there had been 15 deaths so far this year among children aged up to four years. There were only three such deaths throughout last year and another three this year until the end of May.
The statistics thus indicate that 12 children aged up to four years have died in the last three months. A total of 310,074 cases also involved children in 2021, a 25-fold increase compared with 12,620 in 2020.
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