Photo: AP
The Covid-19-triggered conditional movement control order announced on Oct 14, 2020, has not only further impacted the Malaysian economy badly but also affected our children’s educational development significantly.
It is obvious that children have not attended school for a total of at least six months in 2020. While the Education Ministry and teachers have been trying to implement e-classes and teach online, it is a very real fact that many kids have been left behind for various reasons, such as a lack of Internet access and electronic tools, non-systematic e-classes rolled out by schools, skipping classes, losing focus during online classes, teachers not distributing homework or providing enough guidance, etc.
I would like to offer the Education Ministry a few suggestions that could help those children who are struggling.
1. Offer revision classes: Kids who have not been able to attend e-classes during the MCO phases may not be able to catch up when school reopens in 2021. I suggest the ministry make revision classes for the 2020 syllabus compulsory at the end of December 2020 and early January 2021. Not every child needs to attend but it should be mandatory the every school offers these classes. Schools could test students to determine who needs these classes before the school year begins in 2021 (assuming the Covid-19 situation improves).
2. Earlier opening of schools in 2021: The Education Ministry has announced that schools will only reopen on Jan 20, 2021. This is to accommodate the year-end holidays which have been pushed back to Dec 18 to allow teachers to finish the 2020 syllabus that was delayed by the earlier MCO phase from March to July 2020 when schools were closed.
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