PUTRAJAYA: The first phase of lockers in primary schools with two sessions will be installed at the end of this month, according to Senior Education Minister Datuk Dr Radzi Jidin.

He said the initiative was implemented to address the issue of heavy school bags.

"As a start, the first phase of locker will be installed for Year One and Year Two pupils by October," he told reporters after an engagement session with senior media editors here today.

Radzi said the Ministry of Education (MOE) has not finalised the location of the schools that will be involved in the installation of the first phase of lockers, and will be announced later.

On March 6, Radzi said MOE will be providing lockers in primary schools as one of the seven approaches to address the heavy school bags issue.


In a related issue, he said the ministry also received positive feedback from state Islamic religious councils which agreed to coordinate the wearing of their respective school uniforms during Al-Quran and Fardu Ain (KAFA) class sessions.

"The councils agreed that national school uniforms should be used to attend KAFA school sessions," he added.

In a separate development, he described the hybrid solar project involving Sarawak's rural schools as complicated since it faced many legal issues that need to be examined by the ministry.

"It is a complicated matter that I need to go through and the ministry is looking into it," said Radzi.

Recently, Sarawak Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts Minister Datuk Seri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah urged that the hybrid solar project continued to be carried out to benefit communities in rural areas.

-- BERNAMA