School holiday extended to March 31

KUALA LUMPUR: The one-week school holiday has been extended until March 31 to curb movement of people in view of the Covid-19 spike.

Defence Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said with the extension of the holidays, parents could stay put wherever they were and would not need to return home to enable their children to go to school.

"So our order is for parents who are with their children during the holidays to continue staying on in their kampung until March 31," he said in a press conference on Friday (March 20) on non-health related matters after a special meeting by ministers on movement control order (MCO) implementation.

Ismail said with the school holidays extended to March 31, parents would also not have to go to the office.

The decision was made to minimise movement of people during the MCO period imposed from March 18 to 31.

Recently, many Malaysians who were unaware of the significance of the order decided to "balik kampung" (return to home towns) after the order was announced, causing massive movement of people and creating more concerns that the Covid-19 was being widely spread.