Compiled by MARTIN CARVALHO, C. ARUNO and R. ARAVINTHAN

       SELLERS in the Klang Valley have already stocked up on lokam (mandarin oranges) for Chinese New Year but its cousin the pokam (honey mandarin oranges) will take two more weeks to arrive, reported Sin Chew Daily.

       A check by the daily revealed that the various fruit warehouses were filled with boxes upon boxes of mandarin oranges.

       A seller revealed that they have been stocking up since December but sales have yet to pick up.

       They expect demand to rise by the middle of this month, which is two weeks before Chinese New Year on Feb 1.

       > As the school term in Malaysia has been extended to February, first-year students at Chinese independent schools will have to attend their classes concurrently with the final two months of their Year Six school term, Sin Chew Daily also reported.

       Once schools start on Jan 9 and 10, these students will have to attend their Year Six classes in the morning before going for online classes at Chinese independent schools in the afternoon, according to the educationist group United Chinese School Committees Association of Malaysia (Dong Zong).

       The group’s CEO Leong Seng Yee reassured parents that they will only focus on core subjects during online classes in January and February to prevent overwhelming the students.

       The main aim of the online classes, he added, was to help the students get used to the environment at Chinese independent schools.

       According to Leong, this will help the students to better transition from primary schools to being in a Chinese independent school, which is a secondary education institution, come March when they have to physically attend classes.

       Dong Zong chairman Tan Tai Kim added that the online classes should be viewed as an orientation programme to help students get used to their new environment.

       Each school will decide how many online classes they will hold in a week as well as how long each session lasts, Tan said.

       ● The above article is compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with this ' >'sign, it denotes a separate news item.