Malaysian students come back to school after six months

A total of 143,000 students in Malaysia, except those in Kedah and Johor, began returning to school on October 4 after all schools in the country were closed for about six months due to the spread of COVID-19.

Malaysia's Education Ministry recently announced the reopening of schools in stages. (Photo: The Star/Asia News Network)
Malaysia's Education Ministry recently announced the reopening of schools in stages. (Photo: The Star/Asia News Network)

Senior Education Minister Datuk Dr Radzi Jidin told reporters that “the ministry’s approach of bringing students back to school is because we want our education system to move again”.

He said the response from parents was very encouraging, but some of them still felt that now is not the right time to send their children back to school as they are worried about the pandemic situation.

Commenting further, Radzi said no action would be taken against such parents and they have the option not to send their children to school but they have to notify the school in advance.

Malaysia’s national COVID-19 immunisation programme for adolescents aims to give at least one dose of vaccine against COVID-19 to 60 percent of adolescents aged 12-17 by November, and fully vaccinate 80 percent of them before the new academic year 2022-2023.