March 13, 2024
SINGAPORE – First-day blues were eased for many Malaysian children who started the 2024-2025 academic year on March 10 and 11 as mascots such as a Red Power Ranger, Hello Kitty, frogs, teddy bears and cats greeted them.
They welcomed the children with high-fives and hand shakes, and also took pictures with them, videos and pictures on social media showed.
The mascots were trotted out mostly to calm the nerves and ease the fears of children who are starting Year 1. There are 466,799 of them in 2024, according to Malaysia’s education ministry.
Over the years, the wailing and crying of kids who were starting Primary 1 was the norm, fraying anxious parents’ nerves.
However, in recent years, character mascots – mostly teachers dressed in costumes – have popped up at primary schools on the first day of the new school year to add a touch of fun to what could be a daunting event for both the children and their parents.
In some schools, teachers sang upbeat songs, while in others, older pupils and teachers handed out gifts such as fruits and stationery to new students.
“Teachers nowadays are so creative just to make the children excited to go to school,” noted TikTok user tsumie.
Many lamented that their first day of school years ago was much more mundane.
“If my first day of school were like this, I would be more excited to go to school,” said social media user Fuyukaa.
Another one, with the handle FarhamKarim91, noted: “This is not fair… What I had was a teacher with a very stern gaze.”
A total of around five million students in Malaysia started their new academic year over the course of two days, the education ministry said.
Johor, Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu started the new school year on March 10, while Selangor, Melaka, Negeri Sembilan, Pahang, Perak, Perlis, Penang, Sabah, Sarawak and the three Federal Territories of Kuala Lumpur, Labuan and Putrajaya started the academic year on March 11.
The start of the school calendar was changed from January to March in 2022, after the government announced that the 2021 school calendar would be extended to February 2022 due to disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and the ensuing lockdown measures.
The start of the academic calendar will revert to January in 2026.