KUALA LUMPUR: The Education Ministry will conduct an engagement session with all relevant stakeholders, including the National Union of Teaching Profession (NUTP), for feedback in preparing the draft calendar for the 2025/26 academic year.
Deputy Education Minister Wong Kah Woh said this was in line with the ministry's effort to revert the start of the academic calendar to January 2026.
"Similar to the preparation of past academic calendars, the ministry will engage with stakeholders including NUTP, the Sarawak Teachers Union and Sabah Government Teachers Union to gain feedback on the preparation of draft calendar for the academic year 2025/2026 before being finalised for the gazetting process.
"The ministry will also ensure that the academic calendar is prepared to meet the optimal teaching and learning period which ranges from 32 to 26 weeks to cover the entire school curriculum," he said during minister's question time in Dewan Rakyat, today.
Wong said this in response to Mohd Misbahul Munir Masduki (PN-Parit Buntar) on the ministry's plan to restore the school calendar from January to December.
Previously, Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek had told the Dewan Rakyat that the start of the academic calendar will revert to January starting 2026.
Fadhlina said her ministry has started working on reverting the school session to the January starting point by bringing forward the start of the academic calendar 2024/ 2025 to February.
The start of the school calendar was previously changed from January to March in 2022, after the government announced that the 2021 school session would be extended to February the next year due to disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and the ensuing lockdown measures.
Meanwhile, Wong said the arrangement for the schedule of public examinations will also be carried out to be on par with the changes in the school academic calendar.
He added that the ministry must also ensure that the preparation of the academic calendar will be based on the Education (Terms, Days, and School Holidays) Regulations 1998 (Amendment) 2021, which stipulates that the number of school days should not be less than 190 days annually.