“There is no necessity to replace those days as the schooling period is sufficient. It is not a case of providing additional school holidays. We had to postpone the session due to a specific problem,” he said.
Muhyiddin, who is also the education minister, spoke at a news conference after visiting two flood relief centres, at Sekolah Kebangsaan (SK) Durian Mentangau and SK Kampung Nyior, here.
Terengganu Menteri Besar Datuk Ahmad Razif Abdul Rahman, state secretary Datuk Mazlan Ngah and Terengganu National Security Council acting secretary Roslina Ngah were also present at the news conference.
With the postponement, schools in Kedah, Kelantan, Terengganu and Johor will now reopen on Jan 11 instead of Jan 4 and those in the other states will reopen on Jan 12 instead of Jan 5.
Muhyiddin, who is the chairman of the National Disaster Management and Relief Committee, said 340 schools in seven states had been affected by the floods or were being used as relief centres.
“There are teachers stranded in their villages and cannot come to school. As such, we decided to postpone the start of the 2015 school session,” he said.
Muhyiddin also instructed the education ministry to distribute the RM100 schooling aid provided under the annual budget as early as next week, giving priority to flood victims.
He also asked the state education departments and district education offices to begin evaluating the flood damage to property.
— BERNAMA
