Education, health ministries in talks on attendance for Form 5 students

The education ministry is in talks with the health ministry on the vaccination rate of Form Five students to enable them to attend school without rotation.

Education Minister Radzi Jidin said this followed the increase in the vaccination rate of Form Five students which saw 371,696 or 97% having received a first dose while 57.9% are now fully vaccinated.

“Students have started returning to school and the SOPs have been implemented well. We may consider allowing some groups of students (to attend physical classes) on a non-rotational basis.

“Maybe we can start with Form Five students, as has been implemented for students (who will be sitting for) the STPM examination,” he told reporters after visiting Sekolah Kebangsaan Tengku Zainun, Tampin, today.

Meanwhile, Radzi said a total of 339,951 students were allowed to attend physical classes in states that have moved to Phase Four of the National Recovery Plan (NRP), namely Negeri Sembilan, Labuan and Langkawi, beginning yesterday and today.

The education ministry previously announced that schools in states under Phase Four of the NRP will be reopened involving Level One (Standard One, Two and Three) primary school students, as well as Form Three and Form Four students in secondary schools on Nov 1.

Attendance for Level Two (Standard Four, Five and Six) primary school students, as well as those in remove classes, Form One and Form Two for secondary school students will begin on Nov 8.

In the meantime, Radzi said the implementation of rotational face-to-face classes and home-based teaching and learning (PdPR) sessions was running smoothly so far.

He said through PdPR, teachers would inform students about the preparations that need to be done before attending their face-to-face classes the following week.

“When students come to school the following week, teachers will look at which topic their students failed to understand during the PdPR session and help them with that,” he said.