KEPALA BATAS: The home-based teaching and learning (known by its Malay acronym PdPR) approach used widely during the movement control order at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic years ago is being considered to help ease traffic congestion during the upcoming Asean Summit to be held in May and October, says the Education Ministry.
Its minister Fadhlina Sidek said that discussions with relevant stakeholders are underway, including efforts to identify the schools that may implement PdPR during that period.
“Reducing traffic congestion is key in ensuring everything proceeds efficiently. The ministry is prepared to accommodate the necessary requests,” she said after launching the wearing of the Jalur Gemilang badge on students’ uniforms at SMK Datuk Haji Ahmad Badawi here yesterday.
Fadhlina was commenting on the proposal to allow work-from-home and PdPR arrangements during the Asean Summit in May and October, which was raised by Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan recently.
Last Thursday, Mohamad said the matter would be brought to the Cabinet, following the difficulties and constraints faced by the public due to road closures during the recent state visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Malaysia.
He had also said the proposal could allow civil servants to work from home while schools conduct online lessons to reduce congestion and lessen the inconvenience to the public, especially in the Klang Valley.
During Xi’s visit, several routes in the Klang Valley, including Putrajaya, were either fully closed or gradually diverted from April 15 to 17.
Although the road closures were intended to ensure smooth logistics and security, and prior notices were issued, the situation still drew complaints from road users caught in severe traffic congestion.
The 46th Asean Summit is scheduled to take place in Malaysia on May 26 to 27, while the Asean Summit with Dialogue Partners is set for late October.
Meanwhile, Fadhlina also said that while Malaysia’s bilingual education system has long integrated Bahasa Melayu and English, the ministry is now expanding elective language offerings to include Mandarin, Tamil and Asean languages such as Thai, Khmer and Vietnamese to promote deeper intra-Asean collaboration.
“Asean’s strength lies in its cultural, linguistic and traditional diversity. To harness this, we must prepare our youth to be multilingual, adaptable and culturally competent,” she said.
