Teo Nie Ching – Bernama photo
KUCHING (April 17): The Ministry of Education (MoE) must do a daily update on actual Covid-19 situation in schools so that parents and teachers can have access to crucial information to make informed decisions, said Kulai MP Teo Nie Ching.
The former deputy education said such move would help restore the confidence of parents when sending their children to school.
“Schools have reopened in stages since March. According to the data released by stakeholders, at least 186 schools recorded Covid-19 positives cases since then. Why is MoE not providing daily Covid-19 updates involving schools?
“We do not know how many teachers and students are detected by Covid-19 positive. We also do not know how many schools and classes are closed. And if certain schools are not closed, the reason behind why it is safe to remain open, what are the precautionary steps taken by the government and what are the sanitisation and restoration efforts taken to resume operations,” she said in a statement today.
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Teo also asked the Minister of Finance where the 150,000 free laptops for students were.
“Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz in a statement dated Jan 27 stated that the roll-out of 150,000 laptops by government-linked companies and related investment firms had been expedited to February.
“But until now, we are entering end of April with not the slightest hint of 150,000 laptops promised by the Minister of Finance,” she lamented.
She said she had raised this question in numerous statements but the Finance Minister and the Cabinet had ignored such an important question.
As such, she said this implied that the government of the day did not care about children’s education.
“It is no wonder the #KerajaanGagal hashtag is trending,” pointed out the Democratic Action Party lawmaker.
According to Teo, certain schools are facing shortage of manpower when teachers are ordered to go through home quarantine.
He said the federal government introduced MySTEP or Short-term Employment Programme in the 2021 Budget with an allocation of more than RM700 million.
Under this initiative, she said 35,000 job opportunities would be offered in the public sector, with priority to fill up positions such as nurses, medical attendants, social welfare officers and temporary teachers.
“As we blink and realised the passing of the first quarter of 2021, we have not been informed of the additional temporary teachers our education system needs.
“Where are the additional temporary teachers promised by Ministry of Finance? Teachers form part of the nation’s fore front in assisting the nation to recuperate from the effects of this pandemic. And yet, we see a lackadaisical attitude and response,” she said.
Teo opined that the government had failed in its primary obligations in putting the interest of students first and teachers interests following students’ thus placing the burden on teachers and parents to sort out this mess on their own.
“The lack of leadership is telling and should be called out,” she added.