KUCHING, Sept 8 — Sarawak United People's Party (SUPP) Women chief Kho Teck Wan today expressed concern with the Ministry of Education’s announcement that the Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) public examination would not be rescheduled even if the Air Pollutant Index (API) exceeds 200 next week in the state.
Kho urged the ministry to take more serious precautionary efforts instead of just providing face masks to school children, if UPSR examination is not rescheduled.
“I hope the ministry will make its decisions based on protecting the school children’s safely as their number one priority,” Kho said.
She suggested that schools in haze-affected areas should be closed immediately should the API reading exceeds 200, in accordance with the ministry’s standard operating procedure.
Kho urged the ministry to plan rigorously should UPSR examination is still carried out when API exceeds 200.
“I would like to inquire if the face masks distributed to Sarawak schools today are respirators that will protect the students wearing them from harmful dust,” she said.
A total of 40,448 pupils from 1,285 examination centres throughout Sarawak will continue their UPSR on September 10 and 12.
They had earlier sat for the examination on September 4 and 5 before taking a break for the week-end and public holiday.
As at 9am today, Kuching recorded an API reading of 231, Samarahan 207 and Sri Aman, 230. Any API reading of between 200 and 299 is categorised as very unhealthy.
The API readings for other towns of Sarawak ranged from moderate (less than 100) to unhealthy (over 100).
