Published: Sunday August 9, 2009 MYT 1:31:00 PM
DPM: We have contigency plans for A(H1N1)
BY KAREN CHAPMAN
PERTH: The Education Ministry has contingency plans including adjusting the dates for public examinations if the Influenza A(H1N1) situation in schools cannot be managed.
Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said it was difficult to predict the situation as it was impossible to know what would happen.
“We have to be sensitive about this. The ministry has these contingency plans in case schools become affected,” he told Malaysian media during a breakfast meeting at the end of his five-day working trip here on Sunday.
Muhyiddin, who is Education Minister, was asked if the A(H1N1) situation had become worse in Malaysia.
The UPSR examination for Year Six pupils is scheduled for Sept 8 to 10 while the PMR examination for Form Three students will be from Oct 7 to 13. The SPM examination for Form Five students has been set for Nov 19 to Dec 16.
Asked what would happen to students who were quarantined at home during the public examinations, Muhyiddin said he would have to discuss the matter with Education director-general Tan Sri Alimuddin Mohd Dom.
“We have to study the matter particularly with regards to the examination papers,” he said.
Muhyiddin said the Government was taking various steps to ensure people took the situation seriously.
“We have advised them to take the necessary precautions such as wearing masks, washing their hands and doing self-quarantine if necessary.
“We can’t legislate that they must stay home as otherwise they will say the Government has restricted them to their homes,” he said.
He had said earlier the National Security Council would issue a guideline on the closure of schools and institutions due to the flu, adding health authorities would decide if the situation in a particular school warranted closure.
He said the Government wanted to ensure that classes would carry on with minimal disruption and any decision to close schools would be done with the advice of health authorities.
Headmasters and principals could only halt classes if there was a directive upon instructions from state education directors on the advice of health authorities.
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