SINTOK, Sept 14 – Education Minister Datuk Mahdzir Khalid said schools will only be closed when the Air Pollutants Index (API) reading reached 200 while there has no plans to reduce the benchmark to API 200 as requested by several Parent-Teacher Associations (PTAs).
The API 200 benchmark, he said, was set by the Health Ministry and Department of Environment (DOE). He said he was not saying it cannot be done but this is the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for now. The PTA asks the API, schools closed down to 150 from 200 as the haze has affected the health of students.
Mahdzir said the school needs to ensure the safety of pupils when they decided to close the school after the API level above 200. He said school heads must inform the PTA and families of students about school closure due to the haze as a move to ensure their safety.
He said he school management needs to ensure the safety of the students by gathering them in classrooms first then inform the PTA and their families. He added that the schools should observe the current Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to ensure the safety of the children.
Earlier, Mahdzir sMahdzir had witnessed the signing ceremony of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Uniutama Property Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary company of Universiti Utara Malaysia and Yayasan Guru Malaysia Berhad (YGMB). Also present were UUM vice-chancellor Prof Datuk Seri Dr Mohamed Mustafa Ishak and chairman of YGMB Tan Sri Alimuddin Mohd Dom.
The MoU is to enable Uniutama develop a piece of land which owned by the Federal Territory Education Department at Jalan Haji Hussein, Chow Kit in Kuala Lumpur to build the Faculty of Othman Yeop Abdullah Graduate School of Business, UUM and a 12-storey hotel.
