BY NUR HAZIRAH SHUKUR & MARGARET RINGGIT
KUCHING: The government has been urged to allow stationery shops to operate during the movement control order (MCO) period.
According to Sekolah Kebangsaan Pulau Seduku senior assistant (administration and academic management) Ahmad Faizal Osman, stationery shops as well as the stationery sections in supermarkets should be reopened to allow teachers to buy items for home-based teaching and learning (PdPR) purposes.
“Apart from teachers, students are also affected by this as they also have to buy exercise books as well as stationery.
“Besides that, computer stores should also be reopened as equipment such as microphones, webcams, speakers, cables and others are needed for PdPR,” he said in a Facebook post on Monday.
Further elaborating, Ahmad Faizal, who is fondly known as Cikgu Emmet, pointed out that not all items could be purchased online as some are needed immediately.
Meanwhile, Taher Smail, a teacher, said stationery shops should be allowed to operate throughout the MCO.
He added that not all things could be done online as there are assignments that needed to be printed, copied and so on.
For a mother of three, Nur Hidayah Mohamad Mustapha, the closure of stationery stores has made it difficult for her children as they have to share stuff, especially if they happened to use them at the same time.
“I really hope that stores will be allowed to reopen so that it is easy for us as parents to buy our children’s school supplies.”
Meanwhile, Isaac Law said as students, they also have to do some notes.
“Because the (stationery) shops are closed, my mother has to bring her stationery from the office for me to use at home.”
Nana Ratnasari Harizan, also a student, said, “The photocopying shop is also very important because most of the assignments need to be printed. It’s a problem for those who do not have a printer at home.”
“So, I hope that the authorities can consider reopening the stores,” she added.
And in Miri, Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak Baru president Bobby William appealed to the Sarawak Disaster Management Committee to ease some of the restrictions.
He hoped that shops selling items related to PdPR would be allowed to operate.
“We have received numerous complaints from teachers and parents on the difficulty of buying stationery, and even printing materials for their children’s homework or assignments,” he said.
“For instance, during PdPR sessions, teachers need to print out worksheets for their students and not all teachers have printers at home.”
Bobby hoped to see printing shops, shops selling mobile phone top-up cards and computer shops be allowed to operate.
Sarawak is currently under MCO until June 28.
