Poor planning making teachers, students and parents suffer, says Teo

PETALING JAYA: Former deputy education minister Teo Nie Ching has criticised the government’s decision to reopen schools from March, saying it has disrupted teachers’ plans.

In a statement, she said teachers had been working hard to prepare for the education ministry’s home-based learning manual 2.0 (PdPR 2.0), which obtained criticism from teachers’ unions, to ensure they could deliver quality lessons since its implementation on Feb 22.

However, the sudden announcement last week that primary schools would reopen in March meant that the PdPR 2.0 module would only be used for one week.

“Teachers worked relentlessly to prepare new timetables and modules to be delivered starting this week, precisely on Feb 22 onwards. They spent hours and hours and not to mention costs too in preparing for materials to be delivered to students.

“Poor planning from the ministry is making our teachers, parents and students suffer. The inconsistencies and lackadaisical attitude is causing the entire education fraternity a lot of heartache, trouble and dilemma,” she said.

She asked the education ministry if it was willing to admit that it should not have closed down schools in November last year, considering how the number of Covid-19 cases currently were around triple the number at the time.

Teo also asked about the 150,000 laptops that Putrajaya was supposed to distribute to students under the 2021 budget.

“On Jan 27, finance minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz stated that the rollout of the 150,000 laptops by government-linked companies and related investment firms has been expedited to February.

“In another six more days, we welcome March with not the slightest hint of 150,000 laptops promised by the finance minister,” she said.