The Ujian Penilaian Sekolah Rendah and Pentaksiran Tingkatan Tiga examinations will be cancelled this year, while the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia, Sijil Vokasional Malaysia and Sijil Tinggi Agama Malaysia exams are to be postponed to the first quarter of next year.

Meanwhile, the second semester exam for Sijil Tinggi Pelajaran Malaysia will be postponed to August this year, and the third semester exams to the first quarter of 2021. 
 
Parents who are wondering about how their children will get into religious schools, Maktab Rendah Sains Mara institutions or the Royal Military College without UPSR results, or boarding or vocational schools without PT3 results, need not worry as new selection criteria will be used as the basis for entry. The Education Ministry has also worked out with the Higher Education Ministry to postpone the admission date for higher education institutes for foundation, matriculation and diploma programmes to between July and August 2021, while admission for degree programmes will be delayed to September or October. Private universities are also looking at conditional admission of students next year, as they too grapple with this new normal of ours.
 
This is a massive decision by the government; never has any major exam been canceled. It’s also massive in scale. Though none of the news reports mentioned how many students have their exams impacted, we looked at the ministry’s most recent data – which was 2018’s statistics – and found that close to 1.3 million students of the 4.7 million-over students in the country are in these exam batches. 

All in all, we applaud the move, as education has been disrupted for students nationwide during the MCO. They don’t have access to a lot of learning facilities while studying at home, even with e-learning. In fact, a survey shows 40% of students don’t even have access to e-learning because they don’t have devices, so this is a major problem. This is especially so for poorer students or those that live in rural areas, with weak internet connectivity.
 
Things won’t be the same, either, when schools reopen after the MCO is lifted. New guidelines that include social distancing practices will be put in place. What this means that if a class has 35 students, a bigger venue must be accorded, or the class will have to be split in two. God only knows how this will be implemented, but it is among the measures to be taken. We guess recess for students will also have to be staggered even more, if social distancing norms are to be practiced. 

In short, our entire education system will have to go through a rapid process of evolution to cope with our new reality and it’s smart to do it without having the thought of big-scale government exams hanging over everybody like a Sword of Damocles. 
 
In other news, the Malaysian Health Coalition (MHC) has urged the government to engage medical, health and public health experts in any decision-making regarding the MCO and Covid-19. Saying it regretted that certain MCO Phase 3 decisions were made without engaging these experts, the MHC added that future decisions, such as the drafting of an exit strategy for the MCO, should be made in strict coordination between the Health Ministry and health experts. 
 
Speaking of MCO3.0, the Federal government has gazetted the order, with a list of businesses allowed to operate, including additions from the previous two phases, and criteria for travel for anyone not considered part of the essential services list, including the 10km-radius ruling. 
 
Bukit Aman says nearly 6,000 people have been hauled to court for various infractions related to violating the MCO. This number, we figure, will increase quite a bit over the next few days as nearly 15,000 were arrested during the first two phases of the MCO. 
 
So, where on God’s green earth are we gonna put all these people who may end up with prison sentences because they were brilliant enough (full sarcasm mode on) to violate the MCO while a deadly virus is running roughshod over the entire world? After all, the Prisons Department previously said jailing MCO violators has led to overcrowding, not to mention the possibility of risking an outbreak at prisons. 
 
Well, the government will convert 13 academies under the Prisons Department (who knew they even had that many?) to be used as jails for MCO violators, while the department itself is mulling using public buildings as temporary correctional facilities for the purpose, as MCO violators are considered low-risk prisoners. That’s if this report is to be believed. The article, however, doesn’t say what sort of public buildings will be used. 

Anyhoo, here’s some “on-the-bright-side” kind of news about the MCO. Satellite spectrometry images show the MCO has led to clearer skies and cleaner air over Malaysia. Perhaps this is one year we won’t have a problem with haze caused by land burning activities in our neighbours’ backyard, either.