KAJANG, Aug 28 — The 2023 school academic calendar which runs from March will remain as scheduled after taking into account various factors, said Senior Education Minister Datuk Radzi Jidin.

He said several factors were taken into consideration in preparing the school calendar including the possibility of floods in the East Coast states at the end of the year following the northeast monsoon and the long interval before students could resume their studies after the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) examination.

“Floods do occur in other months as well, that cannot be denied, but generally we know that there is a high possibility during the monsoon season.

“In managing an examination, one of the biggest challenges faced by the Examination Board is to hold the SPM examination during floods, at times several technical issues arise, making it difficult to conduct the examination,” he told reporters after the Tanya DRJ special slot session during the Hulu Langat District Education Office Open Day here today.

In addition, he said with the existing calendar, students’ learning momentum will be kept going because after the SPM examination, they need not have to wait too long before they could continue their studies.

Meanwhile, Radzi said all District Education Offices (PPD) need to work on changing the community, school administrators and teachers’ perception that the PPD is only out to find fault when visiting schools even though this was not true.

He said the PPD needs to visit schools to get to know the teachers and administrators better, understand their problems and forward their issues to higher authorities for the Ministry of Education to consider what can be done.

“It has been emphasised that PPDs must be willing to meet the public, that’s why nationwide, PPDs have been given the option to choose a weekend to hold an Open Day.

“We want to send the message that the PPD is always open and that we at the education department and PPD levels are aware of what is happening down there,” he said adding that this would allow top-down and bottom-up communications. — Bernama