THE 2021 school year will begin on January 20, Education Minister Mohd Radzi Md Jidin told the Dewan Rakyat today.

He said the delay in reopening schools is to make up for the days lost due to the shorter year-end holidays this year and also because of the postponement of year-end exams and SPM.

The SPM and STPM exams for Form Five and Form Six students have been pushed to the first quarter of next year.

Radzi said the ministry revised the school calendar for this year after taking into account several factors, such as the movement control order.

“Based on the finalised schedule for school year 2020, the first semester of 2021 for all schools across the country has been scheduled for Wednesday, January 20,” he said while winding up the debate on the royal address.

This also means that the year-end holidays for this year will end on January 20, 2021.

School holidays for 2020 will also be cut short to ensure that students do not fall behind in their syllabus.

States such as Johor, Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu will see their school holidays for 2020 cut short from 42 days to 14 while Malacca, Negri Sembilan, Pahang, Perak, Perlis, Penang, Sabah, Sarawak, Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Labuan and Putrajaya will have a 13-day holiday. – August 3, 2020.