Saturday August 11, 2012
Raya school break to start on Aug 16
KUALA LUMPUR: The Cabinet has agreed to set Aug 16 and 17 as replacement school holidays in conjunction with Hari Raya which is expected to fall on Aug 19.
“All parties will therefore have sufficient time to plan their trip home and avoid traffic congestion,” a statement from the Education Ministry said.
It also said the ministry would allow schools to apply for the replacement holidays through their respective registrar.
For coordination purposes, the ministry had proposed that schools choose Sept 8 and 22, both of which fall on Saturday, to replace their classes.
“But the classes must be the normal full session,” it said. - Bernama
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For me, this announcement comes just TOO LATE. To get back to my hometown, I fly. If I were to fly, I would have purchased my flight ticket well in advance. Why? Given that it is a festive season, I would be NUTS to wait till the very last minute, to wait till the Cabinet announces a holiday, to buy my ticket. Because by then, the tickets would either be sold out or be cutthroat expensive.
According to the official school holiday schedule released at the beginning of the year, holiday starts on 18 August. So, logically, I would purchase tickets for a flight in the evening of 17 August. But now that there is a sudden change, I can actually leave by the evening of 15 August. That's a two-day difference, mind you.
A check on the flight details on 15 August showed that the air fares had hiked. Furthermore, if I were to purchase another ticket for home on 15 August, I would have wasted that RM200 I paid for my flight on 17 August. So, despite the announcement, I will still be going home on 17 August. The fact that schools can actually break on 16 August is of no use to me.
What makes me so MAD is that this situation can be entirely avoided if only it has been looked into at the beginning of the year. Why haven't the authorities done so? Why haven't the authorities consider those who need to FLY?
“All parties will therefore have sufficient time to plan their trip home and avoid traffic congestion,” a statement from the Education Ministry said.
PEOPLE WHO NEED TO TAKE FLIGHTS DON'T PLAN AT THE LAST MINUTE & TRAFFIC CONGESTION IS IRRELEVANT TO THEM!
I sympathize with you. It just goes to show the Education Ministry mindset. They are more into West Malaysia where most people who balik kampung via road. We here in the East with the inferior infrastructure rely heavily on budget airline. This really p*ss me off, particularly the last quote from the Ministry.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jonsey. Many of my colleagues are also stranded here.
ReplyDelete