KUCHING: A special state task should be formed to address issues children had faced during the Covid-19 pandemic when normal schooling was disrupted and classes were held online.
A facilitator from the Sarawak Women for Women Society (SWWS) Gill Raja highlighted the need on the back of worrying findings by the Asian Development Bank.
According to research done by ADB in April 2021, Malaysia registered one of the highest learning losses among Asian developing nations.
This is a very worrying trend, and we fear if something is not done, the children would be facing much more difficulties, growing up, she said
Gill raised the issue during an engagement on the challenges of education among children in Sarawak on Friday via Zoom and live streaming on Facebook.
Organised by Sarawak Development Institute the “Leaving No Child, after Covid-19 Lockdown: Addressing the Challenges in Sarawak session was delivered by Gill.
She said that there were a lot of skills that children could not master due to Covid-19 especially when classes were held online, in addition to internet problems especially in the rural area.
“And not only that, poverty was also one of the main issues because the children did not have any tools to learn the skills they wanted to.
“Especially when it came to online class sessions, they did not have any technology such as laptops or mobile phone to join the classes as well,” she said.
Gill said teachers played an important role and that they should also assist and support the children as well.
“I encourage every community to voice out any problems to any association on this matter,” she added.
