PUTRAJAYA, Jan 19 — All the 239 schools affected by the recent floods in Kelantan, Pahang and Perak have been cleaned up, enabling lessons to start at these schools for the new session.

Second Education Minister Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh in a statement today said this was the result of the commitment of over 40,000 volunteers comprising the staff and students of local public and private tertiary institutions.

On January 1, the Education Ministry had launched the Post-Flood Operation to help flood victims clean up the affected schools with the involvement of the staff and students of public and private higher learning institutions in the country.

In Kelantan, Idris said, all the 165 flood-hit schools had been cleaned up by teams of volunteers over a period of 18 days.

“These include five schools which were the last to be cleaned up. Among them were Sekolah Kebangsaan Tohoi and Sekolah Kebangsaan Balar which were cut by floodwaters and could not be reached by the volunteers, so they were cleaned up by the school teachers and local communities.

“This schools clean-up operation was an excellent achievement and something to be proud of. However, there are still schools whose storeroom, prayer room and grounds need to be cleaned up,” he said.

Idris said this could be done by the schools themselves and local volunteers as the primary focus of the Post-Flood Operation was to enable the teaching and learning process to commence soonest possible.

In Pahang, he said, the clean-up operations at all the 67 affected schools had been completed, including for seven schools today and which the new session also today.

Idris said in Perak, all the remaining seven affected schools had been cleaned up for use for the new school session. — Bernama