KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 22 — Unvaccinated teachers will be assigned tasks based on the needs of their respective schools, Education Minister Datuk Mohd Radzi Md Jidin said today.

He said this in reply to Padang Serai MP M. Karupaiya who had interrupted his ministerial winding-up speech in the Dewan Rakyat to ask how the Education Ministry plans to manage unvaccinated teachers in terms of duties, and if their responsibilities will be shouldered by their vaccinated colleagues instead.

"This becomes a problem. Vaccinated teachers would then have to work more,” Karupaiya lamented.

"These teachers will be assigned duties based on the current needs of their schools. This is because there are 2,100 individuals in differing school situations,” Radzi replied, adding that all academic staff at some schools are fully vaccinated.

"There are schools where three people teach the same subject, for example. So we are looking at it one by one, on what is the best approach.”

On September 1, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said that around 83 per cent of more than 412,000 teachers nationwide are fully vaccinated, with 96.5 per cent having received at least their first dose.

He added that 68.8 per cent of schools’ supporting staff are fully vaccinated.