GEORGE TOWN: The Penang Education Department (JPN) is taking proactive steps to prepare schools throughout the state to face the current heatwave.
State Education director Mohamad Dziauddin Mat Saad said this included holding engagement sessions with all headmasters, principals and the District Education Office to ensure that all 398 schools make preparations, based on guidelines issued by the Education Ministry.
He said that as a result of an engagement last Friday before the school session reopened, schools had taken immediate action by informing parents in advance about the adjustment of schedules and students’ needs during the hot weather period, including granting schools autonomy to determine more comfortable clothing.
“That is why we can see that on the first day of school opening today, children came wearing T-shirts, carrying water bottles, mini fans and the school even took the initiative to provide a water supply in the canteen,” he told Bernama after conducting a survey at SK Sungai Gelugor here yesterday.
Mohamad Dziauddin added that JPN was also paying attention to the school infrastructure aspects, especially involving fans, windows and ventilation systems to ensure that the learning environment remains conducive.
In this regard, he said the Infrastructure and Procurement Sector had been instructed to immediately review any issues related to the facilities so that repair work could be carried out immediately.
Although Penang is not currently under any heat alert, Mohamad Dziauddin said monitoring is ongoing, with the department in close contact with the Malaysian Meteorological Department to obtain and share the latest updates with schools.
