Let us take our children home for a weekend

I am sure I am not the only parent to a matriculation programme student who is frustrated by the Education Ministry regulations imposed on these students. Being a responsible Malaysian, I understand that we have to follow standard operating procedures (SOPs) in our daily lives nowadays because of the Covid-19 pandemic, but at times these SOPs seem to be causing a lot of unneccesary stress.

Matriculation students nationwide registered and entered their campuses during the first week of August. Initially, they were told that after a month of a supposedly quarantine period, they would be allowed to go home over the three-day National Day holiday weekend (Aug 29-31, 2020; National Day, on Aug 31, is a public holiday). However, a few days before the weekend, the students were informed by the Education Ministry, via their respective matriculation centres, that they would not be allowed to go home.