Covid-19: Johor exco says 91 religious schools in the state to close for two weeks

Johor Islamic Religious Affairs Committee chairman Tosrin Jarvanthi said the closure also involved 91 government religious schools and 67 private institutions including private tahfiz schools, private Islamic primary schools and private Islamic secondary schools. — Picture by Ben Tan

JOHOR BARU, Oct 31 ― All Johor government religious schools in the district were also ordered to close for two weeks from tomorrow following the announcement of the closure of all educational institutions, here, after Johor Baru was declared a Covid-19 red zone starting yesterday.

Johor Islamic Religious Affairs Committee chairman Tosrin Jarvanthi said the closure also involved 91 government religious schools and 67 private institutions including private tahfiz schools, private Islamic primary schools and private Islamic secondary schools.

“Also involved in the closure are all Johor Islamic kindergartens, Johor Marsah College, Maahad Johor, tahfiz centres and schools registered with the Johor State Islamic Religious Department (JAINJ), all private religious schools registered with JAINJ and Al Quran classes under JAINJ Al-Quran teachers, ”he said in a statement last night.

He said the closure instructions also included any tahfiz centres, “pondok” and schools that had not been registered with JAINJ.

Meanwhile, Johor Women, Family and Community Development Committee Chairman Zaiton Ismail said 265 kindergartens and four nurseries under the supervision of the Community Development Department (Kemas) which were in the Johor Bahru red zones were also closed, from Monday (November 2) to next November 14.

In a separate statement, she said all the kindergartens involved 7,003 students while the nursery involved 101 children.

“Taking into account the current development of the Covid-19 pandemic which is growing in the state of Johor and the Johor Baru district has been confirmed as a red zone by the Ministry of Health Malaysia, there is a need to close kindergartens, nurseries and similar activity centres to curb the spread of Covid-19, ”she said.

Zaiton said referring to the letter from the Director General of the Social Welfare Department (JKM) dated October 12, JKM had decided that all nurseries, daycare centres, senior citizen activity centres, children's activity centres and Community Rehabilitation (PDK) should be closed for areas that has been declared a red zone.

Apart from Kemas nurseries and kindergartens, also closed are 124 registered nurseries, nine PDKs, 105 day care centres, two senior citizen activity centres and two children's activity centres in this district for the same period.

She said any notification regarding the closure of kindergartens, nurseries and similar activity centres would be announced from time to time based on statistics released by MOH on Covid-19.

"The decision of this closure is to take into account the views of the National Security Council and the Johor State Health Department to ensure that Covid-19 can be controlled and not infect high-risk groups such as children and the elderly," she said. ― Bernama

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