TEACHERS and civil servants are appealing to the Education Ministry to consider reinstating the original Hari Raya Aidiladha break, as those in Sabah and Sarawak have bought flight tickets to return to the peninsula, said the Congress of Unions of Employees in the Public and Civil Services (Cuepacs).

Civil servants earlier forfeited their Hari Raya Aidilfitri travel plans when the country banned interstate travel as part of the conditional movement-control order (CMCO) back in May.

Cuepacs secretary-general Abdul Rahman Mat Nordin told The Malaysian Insight these employees are hoping to fly back home to visit family during Aidiladha, which falls on July 31 and August 1.

According to the original school calendar, the festival is part of the school-term break from July 25 to August 2.

But a new calendar, released by the ministry to compensate for school closures during the Covid-19 pandemic, reduced the number of days in term breaks. 

The new calendar states that the Aidiladha holiday is only from July 31 to August 1, with no additional days off. 

“Those who bought tickets based on the old dates have to forfeit their tickets or buy new ones, which are really expensive,” Rahman said.

He estimates that the number of teachers and government staff making the appeal number in the hundreds, as there are between 2,000 and 3,000 civil servants from the peninsula stationed in Sabah and Sarawak.

“The majority of civil servants in East Malaysia are still Sabahans and Sarawakians but there is still a significant portion of people from the peninsula.”

Civil servants from Kelantan and Terengganu have been especially put off as the Aidiladha festival is a big celebration in the east coast states.

“We’ve been getting calls from them to get us to lobby the ministry to reinstate at least the Aidiladha break because they’ve already bought flight tickets based on the original school-term schedule.”

The new calendar has attracted brickbats from teachers and parents who said the sudden change in dates will disrupt their lives.

The mid- and year-end holidays have been reduced by between 13 and 14 days from the original 41 and 42 days.

Schools in Johor, Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu, where weekends are on Friday and Saturday, will get 14 days of holidays. Schools in the rest of the country will get 13 days.

The ministry rejigged the calendar to make up for “lost time” when classes were suspended for almost three months due to efforts to break the chain of Covid-19 infections in Malaysia.

The National Union of the Teaching Professions (NUTP) also appealed for a return to the old calendar, saying that teachers worked twice as hard during the lockdown to prepare remote and online lessons for pupils.

Parents’ groups also complained that families had already made plans to visit their elderly parents and schedule weddings during the school holidays.

Rahman appealed to the ministry to make an exemption, at least for Aidiladha, if it still insists on following the new schedule.

“Civil servants could not balik kampung during Aidilfitri due to restrictions on travel.

“So, they worked hard and made arrangements to return for Aidiladha. The minister should consider this,” he added. – July 9, 2020.