PUTRAJAYA: The 2021 academic year will be extended to January and February 2022 to allow students to catch up and ensure they are ready to move on to the next level of their education.

       Education Minister Datuk Dr Radzi Jidin said this meant the students would remain in the same classes they were in this year during the first two months of 2022.

       Officially, he added, this would mean the 2022 academic year would begin in March and be known as the 2022/2023 academic year.

       “We can see the light at the end of the tunnel with the vaccination programme and we can see that in 2022, we need to bring the students back to school, assess how much they’ve mastered and help them using the best approach to ensure they are ready for the next level,” he said when announcing the new school SOP yesterday.

       “The two months will be used by the Education Ministry to gauge how much the student has mastered and what help, intervention and support are needed,” he added.

       He said the focus would be on students who were still weak and provide them intervention programmes that would help them reach the minimum mastery level before proceeding to the next class.

       As for excellent students, the two months will be used to strengthen their understanding of their syllabus, he said, adding that this was a new method by the ministry to help the weak students.

       Radzi said Year Six students would remain in primary school and only begin Form One in March while Year One students would begin their academic life in March.

       He also said that the year-end holidays would remain from Dec 10-31.

       Radzi also said as of Sept 11, 97.46% of teachers had received at least one dose and 88.65% two doses.

       “For now, teachers who are not vaccinated (for various reasons) are not allowed to teach in class,” he said.

       He added that the ministry was in discussion with the Public Services Department on action to be taken on teachers who refuse to be vaccinated.

       He also said nearly all (96.96%) of academic support staff and 90.59% of other staff – including cleaning, canteen and security – had received at least one dose of the vaccine.

       Radzi also said they had obtained the list of school transport operators from the Transport Ministry and discussed with CITF to have these operators and drivers vaccinated.

       However, he said parents should take note that their transport operator might not be in the list given by the Transport Ministry.