KUCHING: Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) Youth Central Publicity and Information Secretary Kelvin Hii has called on the Ministry of Education (MOE) to consider adjusting the academic calendar back to January.
Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, he pointed out that the academic calendar in Malaysia has been adjusted to start in March every year.
Hii who is also SUPP Pujut branch youth chief said this has caused a lot of inconvenience, thus urged the MOE to make adjustments.
“After consulting with many education workers, it was found that many of them agree to adjust the academic calendar back to January.
“Although the new academic year for primary and secondary schools start in March, many local and foreign universities have not adjusted their intake period thus many of them still start classes in March. This causes many Form Five and Six students to enter university unprepared,” he said in a statement yesterday.
Hii noted that even some primary school students who are entering international secondary schools had to enroll before they finish their Primary Six studies.
He said this would affect the academic transition of the students and bring inconvenience to teachers and other students.
“Moreover, many parents hope to have a good holiday time with their children thus they would use up their remaining holidays to go out with their children.
“However, due to the inconvenience of the academic calendar, many students have to sit for final exams in December and cannot travel with their families,” he said.
Hii suggested that it may only take one year to change the academic calendar, whereby the original one-year curriculum can be condensed into nine months.
As such, the academic calendar can be adjusted back to the original one with just a year of inconvenience.
“The MOE guideline requires at least 190 days of class time per year. If the holiday time is reduced in the year and with the cooperation of teachers and parents, it is believed that the academic calendar can be adjusted back to the original system in a short time,” he added.
