40 minutes
THE parents of pupils of a primary school in South Seberang Perai district are worried to death because a “back from China” pupil returned to the school recently after only seven days of self-quarantine.
Some of them have complained to Deputy Education Minister Teo Nie Ching that the school’s headmaster did not impose the mandatory 14-day quarantine as ordered by the Education Ministry because he did not receive the ministry’s official directive.
According to a report in Nanyang Siang Pau today, a parent who wished to be identified only by her surname, Lee, has appealed to Teo to ensure that the ministry sends out a circular to all schools regarding the mandatory 14-day self-quarantine for students who visited China recently.
Lee said some parents told the deputy education minister on WhatsApp that the action of the headmaster had given them the jitters and that a few were so worried that they cried.
According to the report, the pupil returned to Malaysia on Jan 27 but went back to school on Feb 4 after quarantining himself at home for just a week.
Lee said although some teachers had advised the pupil to stay away for 14 days, he went back to school for two days due to the indecision of the headmaster.
The pupil’s parents eventually kept him at home at the request of other parents.
Bukit Tambun assemblyman Goh Choon Aik, who received many parents’ plea for help, said he contacted Teo and was told that the ministry had issued a directive on Jan 30 requiring students and teachers returning from China to undergo a 14-day self-quarantine at home before going back to school.
Goh said he later met the headmaster over the matter but the latter told him he did not receive any official notification from the ministry.
Meanwhile, Sin Chew Daily reported today that many parents of a primary school in Banting had kept their children at home following reports that a man from Banting was the country’s 18th confirmed novel coronavirus case.
