By KAREN CHAPMAN
KUALA LUMPUR: Schools have the option to decide if students should wear masks as a precaution against Influenza A(H1N1).
Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said the Government had issued guidelines on the pandemic.
“The school authorities will know their own situation better,” he told reporters during a visit to SK Bukit Damansara.
He was asked why it was not compulsory to wear masks in schools. Earlier, he had observed 196 Year Six pupils sitting for the UPSR examination, which began yesterday.
Muhyiddin, who is also the Education Minister, said it was important to practise proper hygiene at all times and wear masks if necessary.
He said the ministry had spent RM5mil to provide masks, hand sanitisers and infrared thermometers for the 517,908 Year Six pupils sitting for the UPSR examination.
Education director-general Tan Sri Alimuddin Mohd Dom explained that pupils might decide whether to wear a mask during the examination or not.
“The temperatures of all pupils were taken by infrared thermometers before the start of the examination,” he said.
Muhyiddin said four Year Six pupils — one each in Johor, Negri Sembilan, Penang and Sarawak — were confirmed to have Influenza A(H1N1) and were sitting for the examination in hospitals.
Just before he left the school, Muhyiddin was handed a letter from Parent Action Group for Education (PAGE) chairman Datin Noor Azimah Abdul Rahim.
Noor Azimah said the letter requested the ministry to clarify its stand on whether parents could hold an extraordinary general meeting in school to exchange ideas on retaining the teaching of Mathematics and Science in English. - The Star
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