NEW rules to prevent coronavirus infections in schools are holding up so far, nearly a week after pupils of all ages were finally allowed to return to class, said teachers and parents.

Parents have complimented the efforts by school administrators and teachers enforcing the government’s standard operating procedure (SOP) for schools that was rolled out early in June.

About two weeks ago in Kelantan, a teacher died after falling off the first floor of a school while installing sinks for the upper classrooms, said Romeli Ismail, who belongs to a Terengganu parent-teacher group.

“This shows that teachers are risking their lives to ensure that children remain safe while in school,” said Romeli, who heads the Terengganu’s National Parent-Community Action Group (KPIBKK).

The SOP is meant to minimise physical contact between everyone in school and increase personal hygiene while ensuring that pupils can transition back to face-to-face lessons after nearly four months of remote learning.

Primary school teachers are extremely meticulous in keeping an eye on children below the age of nine for fear they ignore the SOP when interacting with their friends.

However, the national teachers’ union says the concern now is with what happens outside school gates after classes end.

“The responsibility of administrators and teachers ends outside the school gates. Then it is the responsibility of parents and the community,” said Amiruddin Awang, president of the National Union of the Teaching Profession (NUTP).

“When parents or the school bus arrives late, children who are waiting for these rides will start to forget about physical distancing and start playing and talking to each other,” Amiruddin told The Malaysian Insight.

“The community has to come up with ways to get children to follow the SOP outside schools as the burden cannot just fall on teachers and administrators who already have so many duties,” he said.

Today marks the first week after which all national and private school classes have been allowed to resume after they were suspended when the county went into lockdown.

The partial lockdown on March 18, called the movement-control order (MCO), was started to break the chain of Covid-19 infections in Malaysia, which have so far sickened 8,904 people and killed 124.

Throwing caution to the wind

About half a million form five and upper form six pupils were given priority to go back to class on June 24 as they will sit for public exams in March.

This was followed by the rest of secondary school, form one to four, on July 15 and primary school pupils who went back to school on July 22.

The SOP includes:

* pupils and all staff must undergo temperature checks before being allowed into the premises.

* desks placed 1m apart and limiting classes to 20 pupils.

* recess times are staggered and meals are eaten in class instead of the canteen. One pupil from each class is chosen to buy meals from the canteen and return to class.

* sanitisers to be placed in each classroom.

* classrooms are to be sanitised by cleaners at the end of each day.

* all group assignments, assemblies and co-curricular activities are suspended.

In addition, schools have also installed sinks in each classroom so pupils can wash their hands frequently without having to walk to the toilet.

“We were worried about sending our two daughters back to school initially. But we can’t keep them home forever and they must resume lessons properly,” said parent Jennifer Bala from Shah Alam.

“But so far, from what my children say, the schools are strictly following the SOP,” said the 44-year-old, whose children attend SMK Subang Utama.

Due to fears that younger primary school pupils would not maintain physical distance, some schools have teachers walk the children to class in the morning after their temperatures are taken, said Romeli.

“Parents were worried about their primary schoolchildren and they would wait outside the school to see them enter class. But after seeing how strictly the teachers were enforcing the SOP, their worries were reduced,” he said.

Teachers were also initially concerned that schools with large populations and which already have morning and afternoon sessions will not have enough space once class sizes are cut as per the SOP.

These schools were then allowed to rotate their class cohorts where form one and four would take turns to attend physical classes while form five and six would come daily.

NUTP secretary-general Harry Tan said of the more than 10,200 schools in the country, only 52 have had to use the rotational system while the rest either had single or dual sessions.

“The majority are using model one (single session) while some have dual sessions. Only 52 are using the rotation system.

“Teachers and pupils are following the SOP strictly. However, it is after school hours that we are worried as all safety precautions are thrown to the wind outside the school gates.” – July 28, 2020.