The Ministry of Education Malaysia should ensure comprehensive coverage of main subjects for all levels, from primary to secondary, and allocate more airtime on television free-to-air broadcast channels for educational programmes with classes during the MCO 2.0.
Students are gravely affected by the nationwide school closures due to Covid-19. A large number of rural and low-income families are struggling and cannot afford long term data packages for their children to take part in online learning.
The MoE’s latest schedule only includes 2 hours 10 minutes of primary school and 3 hours 43 minutes for secondary students during the weekdays on National TV channels, and the same also not covering all age groups every day.
This is not sufficient to achieve effective learning. During this pandemic Covid-19, Indonesia’s educational programs are accessible via national television channels with at least six hours airtime. In Thailand, there are 15 channels for education. In Turkey, there is a channel dedicated to each schooling grade from pre-school to university. In the UK, BBC Bitesize provides support for learners aged 5 to 16+ across a wide range of school subjects. It also supports children and young people’s wellbeing and career choices.
The MoE’s should expand the classroom teaching via TV comprehensively to cover all main subjects for all levels from primary to secondary to be aired on TV throughout the day to ensure that children are not left behind during this pandemic.