Frazzled parents who have no idea what to do with their kids who aren’t going to school need worry no longer. Within three weeks, all national school students will have to be hitting the books again.
 
The government yesterday announced that all schools will reopen on July 15 for those in Years 5 and 6, and Forms 1 to 4, Form 6 (Semester 1) as well as remove classes, while those in Years 1 to 4 will return exactly a week later. This will involve some 4.26 million students. 
 
This will mean that all schoolkids will be back in their respective classes by July 22, following the return to school for those taking upper secondary level examinations earlier, on June 24. Like June 24, the two dates set are Wednesdays, and we believe this is for the same reason given for the earlier Wednesday reopening, to give an extra two-day window over the weekend to assess the situation on the ground, review the standard operating procedures (SOPs) and analyse components which need to be improved. 
 
Those returning to schools will have to follow the same SOPs which were announced when school reopened for upper secondary levels. That means that, among others, desks will be at least a metre apart; temperatures checked upon entry for students, teachers, parents or visitors; face masks worn at all times and, though canteens are allowed to open, the kids will will have to take whatever they buy back to classrooms for consumption.
 
Oh, and co-curricular and sporting activities are still not being allowed. So, those who are itching to kick a ball about, play some hoops, smash a shuttlecock around or anything even remotely similar to exercise of any sort together, will have to wait a while longer. 
 
But with many schools pressed for space, how will the Education Ministry maintain social distancing and having desks a metre apart? Aren’t they worried such things will lead to the possibility of more clusters of Covid-19 infections and a spike in the country’s numbers?
 
Well, to give credit where credit is due – the Perikatan government has been doing well in dealing with the pandemic so far. They have acted where and when necessary, and generally steered us well, even if communications seem to be lacking at times. For all our moaning and whinging, it’s sobering to realise that countries like the US, India, Mexico, etc show us how badly things can go wrong if the situation isn’t managed well enough.
 
We’ve avoided that fate so far largely because the politicians and administrators have mainly left the experts to steer our national response to the crisis; even the reopening of schools is being done with the input of health officials. So it came as no surprise that, SOPs aside, there is also a plan to tackle space constraints.
 
Schools will be allowed to choose from three different models, depending on the availability of space. Schools which have sufficient space to maintain classrooms with social distancing SOPs in place will use a single-session model, those which do not will use a double-session model. As a last choice kinda thing, schools that don’t have enough space for even a double-session model can turn to one which utilises a rotational system. 
 
The rotation model for secondary schools will see those in Forms 5 and 6 having to attend school daily, but others can be rotated according to their respective streams. For those in primary schools, students can take turns attending classes according to their class or year.
 
So, come July 22, the entire gamut of Malaysian education from preschool to pre-university will have resumed, what with preschools and kindergartens nationwide having opened yesterday. They will be joined in October when public and private university students are again allowed to attend physical classes. 

Things are slowly getting back to normal as far as education is concerned – at least as normal as can be with Covid-19 precautions in place. All the rights things are being done. Let’s hope we are still on the right path.