Air quality in Port Klang has reached 'dangerous' levels due to the worsening haze situation, chalking an air pollutant index (API) reading of 307 at 9pm.

This has forced the Selangor Education Department to order all 131 schools in the Klang district to close tomorrow.    

Bernama reported Selangor Education Director Mahmud Karim saying the instruction to close the schools was issued to the Klang District Education Office today.       

He said the duration of the closure would depend on the haze and that an announcement would be made on the reopening of these schools.     

The Department of Environment (DOE) reported on its website that the haze was caused by the current drought and the rising number of cases of open burning.

Meanwhile, the Education Ministry reminded school heads to close all school sessions immediately if the schools were in areas with API readings of more than 200.     

In a statement today, the ministry said this was in line with the ministry circular No 17 in the year 2013, which should be observed if the API reached higher than that reading.     

The school heads were also required to inform the school closures to the District Education office and the State Education Department.      

"For areas with API readings of more than 100, the schools should stop all activities outside the classrooms, which put the students at high risk," it said.     

In the case of schools in areas with API readings of more than 150, all co-curricular and out-of-class activities should be stopped.     

All directors of state Education Departments were also required to inform the schools of these rulings, the statement said.     

13 areas read unhealthy

Apart from Port Klang, the DOE website reported 12 other areas as hitting unhealthy levels this morning, deteriorating through the day.

The latest readings at 9pm are Melaka city ( 122 ), Bukit Rambai (144), Nilai (176), Port Dickson (150), Seremban (158) and Tanjung Malim (119).

Other locations were Banting (240), Kuala Selangor (173), Petaling Jaya (171), Shah Alam (161), Batu Muda (163), Cheras (142) and Putrajaya (178).

Earlier at 9am DOE reported 13 areas experiencing API readings that exceeded 100, indicating 'unhealthy'.

Seven areas are located within the Klang Valley, while the others are in neighbouring Negri Sembilan, the two states being hit the hardest in this year's haze attack.

At 9am, Kuala Selangor registered the highest reading of 158, followed by Port Klang at 148.

The readings indicate deteriorating air quality as the number of areas found to be ‘unhealthy’ has increased compared to API readings taken at 6am.

'Schools should close'

The dire situation prompted calls this morning for schools to be closed.

In a statement, Selangor exco member for education, higher education and human resources development Halimah Ali expressed concern for the more than 933,699 registered students in Selangor.

She urged the Selangor education department director to work with the Health and Environment Departments to close schools should API register unhealthy readings.

Yesterday, the Sun Daily quoted Education director-general Abdul Gafar Mahmud as stating that schools are ordered to close once API readings hit 200.

This was a revision of last year’s directive which ordered schools to close only after readings registered 300 and above.

The Natural Resources and Environment Ministry had earlier said this year's haze, usually attributed to forest fires in neighbouring Sumatra , was compounded by hot weather conditions as well as local burning .