He said as of last Friday, a total of 763 schools had recorded positive cases among their staff.

“This record may not be accurate because there is a possibility some cases have not been reported to the ministry,” he told the Dewan Rakyat today.

Radzi said children were currently more at risk of infection because of the increase of workplace clusters involving employees who were also parents.

“The loss of time in school has been the biggest challenge for us. We have tried to find new ways to ensure we can keep schools open, because we want our students to study face-to-face.

“I think all of us want that, but the situation does not allow us to do as such,” he said.

He was responding to a question from Lim Guan Eng (PH-Bagan) on the lack of interaction between students and teachers through online learning and TV Pendidikan.

Radzi said the ministry had decided to close all schools until Dec 17 and 18 as there would only be nine days left for students to attend classes in person after the conditional movement control order (CMCO) for most states is lifted on Dec 6.

In response to a question from Teo Nie Ching (PH-Kulai) on the reopening of kindergartens in Johor and Melaka following the lifting of the CMCO, he said all kindergartens must remain closed, regardless of whether the state was under lockdown or not.

He said he would refer the matter to his ministry and the state education departments to resolve it.