KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 3 — The Ministry of Education has announced today that the school year for 2021 will resume on January 20.
Its minister Mohd Radzi Md Jidin said this is to make up for the 2020 year-end school holidays which have been cut short, due to delay in examinations in light of the Covid-19 outbreak in the country.
“The 2021 school year has to be delayed, because term examinations and SPM (Malaysian Certificate of Education) examinations have also been postponed,” he said in Parliament during his winding up speech of the Royal debate.
Earlier in July, Radzi reportedly said the ministry will take into account school term and break in 2021 due to impact of the movement control order which was enforced on March 18 to prevent further spreading of the Covid-19 infection.
Apart from SPM, the STPM or Malaysian Higher School Certificate examinations have also been postponed to the first quarter of 2021.
The Education Ministry had previously shortened the mid-semester and year-end school holidays.
The ministry also said the mid-semester school holidays for Semester Two will now be from August 20 to 24 while the year-end school holidays will be from December 18 to 31, depending on the state.
“We want to ensure that students are able to get a minimum understanding of what they have learned this year by the time the school year ends [for the year].
“We are worried that if students don’t understand what they have learned [in 2020], then come March [2021], the students may lose their motivation because they feel they have missed out too much [of their education],” he said.
