Arab News | Malaysia closes schools in capital, parts of country due to haze

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia closed schools in Kuala Lumpur and other parts of the country on Friday, the education ministry said, as haze from fires in neighboring Indonesia pushed air quality to unhealthy levels.

“I have instructed all state education departments and district education offices to continue monitoring the haze situation and to take immediate action should conditions require it,” Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek said in a statement.

“I also understand that any decision to close schools will affect the daily affairs of parents,” she added in the statement, which listed fully or partially closed schools in five states, as well as two federal territories.

“In the future, we will ensure that any decision to close schools is notified in advance so that parents have sufficient time to prepare,” Fadhlina said late on Thursday.

Air quality in Kuala Lumpur remained firmly in “unhealthy levels” this week, with a Swiss-based air quality monitor ranking the Malaysian capital among the world’s most polluted cities on most days.

Malaysia’s King Sultan Ibrahim weighed in on the matter on Thursday, saying schools should be closed as air quality readings reached 150 or higher on the Air Pollutant Index (API).

Under Malaysian guidelines, API readings above 200 are classified as very unhealthy, above 300 as hazardous, while readings beyond 500 constitute the threshold for declaring a local emergency.

Kuala Lumpur on Friday showed a reading of around 170 API.

The city was the second-most polluted globally behind neighboring Singapore, Swiss-based air monitor IQAir said.