PETALING JAYA: The Education Ministry has applied for emergency allocation of funds for schools affected by the floods, says deputy minister Datuk Dr Mah Hang Soon (pic).

       He said that Education Minister Datuk Dr Radzi Jidin had applied for the funding to the Finance Ministry and had formulated a flood relief plan.

       "Every school will need to follow their state education department's and the district education offices’ instructions, and fill out information about the school’s damages so that the ministry can offer assistance soon.

       "In the past week, various educational organisations and school boards have reported to us about the situation affecting schools.

       "The ministry will assist in replacing damaged tables, chairs, furniture and textbooks in disaster-affected schools.

       "This would allow them to reopen on Jan 10, 2022 smoothly," he said in a statement after visiting schools affected by the floods on Tuesday (Dec 28).

       He said it was important to allow schools to operate safely and to protect the safety of teachers, students and parents.

       On Dec 26, Radzi said the ministry would examine the need for any school to further postpone the opening of the third term of the 2021/2022 school session based on how badly the schools had been affected by the floods.

       Earlier, he announced that the third term of the 2021/2022 school session, which was supposed to begin on Jan 2 for Group A and Jan 3 for Group B, had to be postponed by a week because of the floods.

       Schools in states in Group A would begin on Jan 9 and those in states in Group B on Jan 10.