PORT KLANG, Sept 30 — The Education Ministry has not decided whether to replace the school days lost during the haze, education director-general Datuk Seri Khair Mohamad Yusof said yesterday.

“The minister will decide. We did not expect this, it is beyond our control,” he told reporters as schools in Johor were ordered to close today because of unhealthy Air Pollutant Index (API) readings until 4pm yesterday.

Khair said the closure of schools was in accordance with guidelines in the national haze action plan. 

Schools are ordered to close when the API reading reaches the unhealthy level. A reading of zero to 50 is healthy, 51 to 100 moderate, 101 to 200 unhealthy, 201 to 300 very unhealthy and 300 and above hazardous. 

Schools in several states had been ordered closed on Sept 15 and Monday, affecting thousands of students. 

On Sunday, Education Minister Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid announced the closure of schools would no longer be guided by just the API after questions were raised about its accuracy.

He said schools should be closed if visibility drops below 500m from the normal 10km.

At 6pm yesterday, 11 areas nationwide recorded unhealthy API readings. 

The highest was in Balok Baru, Pahang, at 128, followed by Larkin Lama in Johor at 124. 

In terms of visibility, Kluang was the lowest at 700m.

Meanwhile, the Education Ministry said it will continue with its plan for the Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) examination to have six papers next year instead of the current five, in spite of objections by some parents and teachers.

Khair said the change was not a recent decision as it was announced in 2010.

“We have announced it since 2010, for the change to take effect in 2016. We do not know what kind of changes they (parents) are looking for (but we will carry on with the plan),” he said.

On Monday, Examination Syndicate director Nawal Salleh said more than 450,000 candidates in next year’s exam will sit for an extra paper as the English paper would be split into writing and comprehension.