KUALA LUMPUR: National Union of the Teaching Profession (NUTP) has assured parents that schools nationwide have been adhering strictly to the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) implemented by the Education Ministry.
Its president Aminuddin Awang said this following report that 41 Covid-19 clusters were linked to educational institutions since January, he assured that no schools were found to be the source of the outbreak.
"We have representatives from the education department who monitor the SOP adherence in schools.
"There are about one or two schools that had their classes closed after Covid-19 cases were detected there, but it would be unfair to close over 10,000 schools throughout the country," he said when contacted today.
He believed cases that were detected at schools could have come from infection from external contacts.
This could happen after family members attended mass gatherings such as weddings or went to crowded public premises such as shopping malls, he explained.
"Government should look at tightening the existing SOP for other sectors that are found to trigger new infections. This is the only way for us to control the virus from spreading," he added.
The Health Ministry reported that it had detected 41 Covid-19 clusters linked to educational institutions nationwide between January and March this year.
They include higher education institution clusters (15), secondary school clusters (11), pre-school and primary school clusters (10) and tahfiz centres (five).
The clusters collectively recorded 2,228 cases, with the highest being from higher education institutions with 1,058 cases.
Clusters from secondary schools followed with 631 cases, while pre-school and primary schools recorded 419 cases and others (120).