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IPG Students Forced to Return to Campus, Ministry of Education Disregards Students’ Lives and Safety

In light of the spike in Covid-19 cases in Malaysia, while universities and colleges are adjourning the date of students returning to campus and continuing with online classes, the students of Institut Pendidikan Guru (IPG) were forcefully instructed by the Ministry of Education to return to their campuses for physical classes. The directive had caused strong dissatisfaction among students, saying that the Ministry’s act was a disregard for the lives and safety of the students.

On 12th of January 4 pm, the Ministry of Education had issued a press conference, requesting all IPG in CMCO and RMCO areas to start their semester with face-to-face classes, and all IPG students in Malaysia, including those from MCO areas and red zone, must return to campus to attend classes.
According to sources, the spatial design of the IPG campus is not conducive for students to comply with the standard operating procedures (SOP). First of all, each room in the college dormitory can accommodate two persons. Each dormitory floor has more than 10 rooms, but there are only 1 to 2 toilets on each floor. One can imagine how cramped the living space of students is. To let students from all over Malaysia gather in the same space for a short period is sufficiently dangerous to cause a potential risk of a pandemic outbreak.
Students from the red zone are requested to do self-quarantine in the specific dormitory rooms, however, they have to move their personal utilities from their respective rooms first before heading to the quarantine rooms so that other students can temporarily stay at the empty rooms. This will also cause a potential risk of infection as the virus might survive in the room for several hours to days, and infects the new resident.
In addition, since the college was closed for a long time due to the Covid-19 outbreak last year, currently there is no stall owner providing food in the college canteen, so students had to buy food from the only cafe in the college. The Office of Student Affairs (HEPA) does not seem to have guaranteed the sufficient supply of food in the campus. In their statement, they even stated that students should prepare enough food reserves when they return to school for unexpected needs. If the movement control order is extended repeatedly, who then, should be responsible for the shortage of daily necessities and food for students?
Besides that, it was instructed that students from the red zone must be isolated in their respective dormitories after returning to campus. At that time, all classes will be held online for the time being. As for sports activities, they must attend face-to-face classes as usual. This had shown confusion and contradictions in the instructions of the Ministry of Education. If online classes are available, why are students still forced to return to school? It was stated that students are not allowed to go out without special reasons after returning to campus. However, lecturers, school workers, school staff, etc. are not within this jurisdiction. It can be seen that even if students stay in the college, they still cannot prevent the potential spread of viruses, as anyone other than the students may be infected.
The students listed the above-mentioned doubts. Some parents also expressed their concerns and worries about their children returning to campus on their social media accounts. However, the HEPA still insisted on the said decision, using the Educational Institutions(Discipline) Act 1976 to intimidate the students, they even stated in the statement that disciplinary action will be taken against students if they fail to produce proof of not being able to return to campus. If there is an outbreak of IPG clusters in the future, can the HEPA be held responsible for their tough and arbitrary measures?
We hereby condemn the Ministry of Education for disregarding student's lives and safety and urge the Ministry of Education to immediately withdraw this unreasonable directive, to stop directing IPG students to return to their campuses, so that the safety of the students can be guaranteed.
If the Ministry of Education and the HEP continued to disregard public concerns, we encourage the IPG students to boycott classes, and even if students are forced to return to campus, they may choose not to attend physical classes until they are allowed to go home for online classes. If IPG students are willing to express their dissatisfaction towards the Ministry of Education by practising disobedience collectively, then students’ rights, as well as safety, will be valued and be taken seriously.
NESA Malaysia
Those who are concerned with this issue are encouraged to sign this petition:





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