OPPOSITION MPs want Putrajaya to explain the confusing standard operating procedure (SOP) regarding nursery and kindergarten operations in green zone states.

Kulai MP Teo Nie Ching said the Pahang Women Family and Community Development had already allowed nurseries to operate.

However, kindergartens are still not allowed to open by the Education Ministry although they are in a green zone.

She said the situation was made more confusing when the Education Ministry allowed kindergartens in Malacca and Johor to open right after the conditional movement-control order (CMCO) ended in both states.

“If we compare, in Pahang until now, even though the state is in the green zone category and there are no active Covid-19 cases, all kindergartens remain closed.

“So, this is a good example… that there is no consistency in the implementation of SOP and instructions made by government agencies.”

“I think our minister should always communicate and even if there is no meeting, they should just use the WhatsApp application,” he said at a press conference in Parliament.

Segambut MP Hannah Yeoh added that the victims in this situation are the kindergartens and nursery operators.

Yeoh said that she had received numerous complaints from nursery owners regarding the SOP.

“Last week, we had an online meeting with kindergarten operators in Pahang who contacted us because no one is helping them.”

“Some even cried in front of us because they were really desperate to pay the teachers’ salary. If this situation continues, they will not be able to survive.”

“We want all rules and SOP to be standardised and (there should be) a careline for them to call and seek answers from,” she added.

Yeoh said that a petition was submitted to the Ministry of Education two weeks ago, but to date there has been no response.

The matter was also raised by Yeoh to the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Mohd Redzuan Md Yusof during the winding up session for the 2021 Budget this morning.

However, the minister did not give a clear answer and denied the conflicting SOP.

He said the SOP is clear and improvements had been made from time to time according to the latest situation.

“There is nothing confusing. The SOP is very clear, maybe the only delivery of information was slow and maybe we can sync the information according to the SOP proposed by NSC.

“We will bring this matter in the next NSC meeting. We will have to check what had been written,” Redzuan said. – November 23, 2020.