KOTA KINABALU, June 24 — The Sabah Education Department will focus on making standard operating procedures (SOPs) compliance as the new norm in schools, to ensure students adopt them as their daily practice.

Its director Mistirine Radin said schools statewide have been preparing to implement the SOP guidelines including taking students’ body temperature and maintaining social distance.

"While the students’ teaching and learning go on, all SOPs must be adhered to, as we do not want to see the emergence of Covid-19 cluster in schools,” she told reporters when met after checking on the reopening of the school session at Sekolah Menengah Tinggi Kota Kinabalu here today.

Mistirine said so far things were running smoothly at schools throughout the state and she was satisfied with the schools administration and management.

The reopening of schools in Sabah involved 236 schools of which 221 are government secondary schools and the rest, private secondary schools.

A total of 16,703 teachers returned to work in their respective schools to enable 45,065 Form Five and Form Six to prepare for their 2020 Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM), Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia (STPM) and Sijil Tinggi Agama Malaysia (STAM) examinations.

In Sandakan, the District Education Office admitted that a few parents had now allowed their children to attend school today for safety reasons, as they still have fears over Covid-19 spread.

District Education officer Dr Dalmansa Tahil said over 80 per cent of the 20,000 Form Five and Form Six student population, involving 21 schools in Sandakan were present in school today.

He said online learning sessions for other students were still in progress but schools had been directed to deliver learning materials to students whose homes do not have internet access.

In Sarawak, a Bernama check at several schools in Kuching, saw teachers and students adhering to the SOPs and social distancing being observed in the schools.

"Everything seems to be going smoothly as we made the necessary preparations three weeks ago. Teachers were assigned tasks and each has their individual roles in getting students to adjust to the new norms,” said Patricia Judin, a teacher at SMK Batu Kawa. — Bernama