FOUR SCHOOLS IN TERENGGANU STILL CLOSED DUE TO FLOODS

KUALA TERENGGANU, Dec 2 (Bernama) -- Four schools in two districts in Terengganu are still closed following the floods on Nov 22.

State Education director Kamsah @ Kamal Mohamed said the closure of all schools involved 2,479 students who were undergoing the Home-based Teaching and Learning (PdPR) starting last Sunday.

He said two schools, namely Sekolah Kebangsaan (SK) Kepong and SK Kampung Bukit, Cendering, were closed due to floods while SK Atas Tol, Kuala Terengganu and SK Paya Resak, Marang were turned into temporary relief centres (PPS).

"SK Kepong and SK Kampung Bukit are closed because water is still stagnant in several areas. So we hope that with the sunny and warm weather in the next two or three days, the situation will return to normal," he told reporters after a post-flood school cleaning programme at SK Kedai Buloh, here today.

Also present was Terengganu National Security Council (MKN) director Wan Suhaini Wan Mohamad.

Explaining further, he said that a total of 16 schools had been closed due to floods while another 48 were operating as PPS to accommodate victims of the first wave of floods this year.

He added that this flood was quite unusual because schools that had never been flooded were also flooded.

Therefore, he said his party would take precautionary measures to deal with unforeseen situations for the safety of students and school staff.

"For example, SK Padang Mengkuang has never been flooded before, and we also had to open SK Paya Resak and SK Tasek to be used as PPS because the Bukit Payung area was hit by quite an unusual flood.

"We are also on standby and ready with Ops Payung in preparation for the opening of next year's school session which will start earlier, on January 12," he said.

According to him, the Terengganu State Education Department (JPNT) is currently collecting data and assessing the damage caused by the flood in several schools before a complete report is submitted to the Ministry of Education Malaysia (KPM) and the National Disaster Management Agency (NADMA).

-- BERNAMA