PARENTS are deeply concerned for the safety of their children at tuition classes as the number of Covid-19 education clusters keeps increasing.

Malaysia has accumulated nearly 100 clusters in the education sector alone since schools reopened in February, and the situation continues to look gloomy.

Some parents have decided to keep their children away from schools and tuition centres, asking for tuition classes to be held virtually to prevent Covid-19 exposure to their children and themselves.

Persatuan Pengusaha Pusat Tuisyen Malaysia’s chairman Andy Lim Seng Huat told The Malaysian Insight that the number of students attending tuition classes have fallen in recent months.

He said that before the outbreak in the education sector, the number of students attending tuition physically recovered to around 70% to 80%.

However, after a number of clusters were traced in schools, parents have asked to switch the lessons online.

“About 50% of parents feel worried and ask their children to switch to online tutoring.

“This is prevalent… in Kuala Lumpur,” he said.

Andy added that some tuition centres were operating sessions virtually, while there were others who continued physical classes under the new normal.

He said that the situation was different outside the capital city where in-person tuition classes are continuing.

“Every parent thinks differently. Some may think this is the new normal and that it must be accepted, so they send (the children) to classes,” he said.

Andy, who has 22 years of experience in the tutoring industry, pointed out that if the infection rate continues to rise, he believed it will affect the operations of many tuition centres.

“Some parents may consider suspending for one month first, not even attending online.

“We have seen in the past year when we faced the pandemic and turned to online classes (that) many students suspended tutoring.

“When we are given permission to resume physical classes, the students also come back,” he said.

Andy added that regardless of tuition classes being held online or offline, the most important was to look at the children’s self-control.

“If the child’s self-control is relatively poor, it is true that physical lessons are better, otherwise the teacher cannot control the situation in online classes.”

Limited communication

Nicole Ng Mei Sim, who runs a tuition centre in Rawang, Selangor, said that as the pandemic became severe, the centre switched online, at the request of parents in early April this year.

“But the communication of online teaching is always somewhat limited, and students can’t grasp everything. So, I’m still looking forward to resuming physical classes,” she said.

She estimated that online tutoring will most likely continue until the end of the school’s calendar year, and then parents will be asked for their decision.

Lee Sze Yee, who has been operating a tuition centre in Cheras, Kuala Lumpur for nine years, did not opt to restart online tutoring.

“Parents ask if there are any students or classmates linked to school clusters and which school they come from. We must reply to parents as soon as possible to give them peace of mind.”

He said that the centre has not had any confirmed Covid-19 cases but there were students whose classmates had been confirmed positive for coronavirus.

However, he said that parents would always be notified.

He added that unless the government announces a closure of tuition centres again, his centre would continue with physical classes.

On April 26, Health Minister Dr Adham Baba said a total of 23,739 students below the age of 12 have been infected with Covid-19 so far this year.

In comparison, he said 8,369 such cases were reported in the whole of 2020.

Adham said transmission among children has been high as it was easy for the virus to be transmitted in schools, where there is co-mingling.

“Any pupil with symptoms such as fever or loss of taste does not need to come to school. If parents are symptomatic or waiting for their Covid-19 results as a person under surveillance, they too should keep their children at home,” he said.

As of April 24, the education sector contributed to 32.4% of positive cases reported, workplace (32.8%), community (29.4%), religious activities (4.4%) and detention centres (1.4%).  An 83.3% increase was also reported in education clusters, from 12 clusters to 20 in the past two weeks.

The R0, a measure of transmission or the number of new infections generated by each case, stands at 1.12, in schools.

Education Minister Radzi Jidin said the latest data from the Health Ministry showed that, of the 99 education clusters, 52 involved public schools, with 2,274 cases. – May 3, 2021.