Senior minister Radzi Jidin said the ministry had agreed to allow 151 secondary schools in Johor to be used as polling centres, but the use of classrooms should be minimised in order not to disrupt the SPM examinations, from March 2 to March 29.

“The classrooms have been arranged by the schools according to the index of students’ names and assigned numbers. Any disruption on the arrangement can give a big implication because this year’s SPM examination is not like the previous years,” he said.

He said the director-general of education, Nor Zamani Abdol Hamid, had discussions with the school principals yesterday to ensure the SPM examination process would go well during the election period.

Polling will be on March 12. Nominations will be on Feb 26, and early voting conducted on March 8.

Radzi said the Election Commission would be asked to exempt from election duty those teachers involved with the SPM examination as invigilators, examination officers or paper examiners. He said these teachers needed to focus on the implementation of the examination.

“This SPM examination is important for parents and the candidates because the 2021 cohort is the most affected group by the new curriculum approach. They did not go to school for two years,” he said.

On procedures (SOPs) for the examination, Radzi said the same SOPs implemented last year would be used : candidates who test positive for Covid-19 would not be allowed to sit for the paper that day but on another date set by the ministry. Schools that are SPM exam centres will provide an early isolation room for candidates who test positive while sitting for the exam.

Candidates tagged as close contacts of confirmed Covid-19 cases must submit a letter from the health ministry stating that they need to be quarantined; these candidates would sit for the paper on a new date.