Stop blaming students, Kamalanathan

Deputy Minister of Education taken to task claiming that Indian students are "wasting" matriculation places allocated for them

PETALING JAYA: P Kamalanathan, the deputy education minister, should stop blaming Indian students over the poor response to the matriculation programme.

A Thiruvegadam, president of Malaysian Indian Education Awareness and Welfare Foundation (PKP-KIM) said Kamalanathan is attempting to cover up for the education ministry’s racist police.

“I had a meeting with him recently and he kept on blaming Indian students for the matriculation fiasco. Do not blame the students for your (MIC’s) mistakes,” said Thiruvengadam.

On Monday, Kamalanathan, the Hulu Selangor MP, claimed that he was saddened that certain Indian students had refused to take up the matriculation seats despite an allocation being made for them.

The MIC Putra coordinator said that the Matriculation Department had awarded 1,850 seats for Indian students for 2013.

According to Kamalanathan who is also MIC Education bureau chief, the matriculation department had initially awarded 1,500 seats.

However, only 892 students had registered themselves in the first two intakes and to encourage more participation, Kamalanathan said the department allocated an additional 350 seats for Indians.

Reveal the full list
However, Thiruvengadam shot down the deputy minister’s argument, claiming that the latter was attempting to divert the real issue by blaming the students.

“First of all, Kamalanathan does not have the list of Indian students. How could he claim that 1,850 Indian students received matriculation places?” asked Thiruvengadam.

He added that Kamalanthan was just an “office boy” who’s defending his ministry without checking the true facts.

Thiruvengadam insisted that the total number seats given to Indians was around 700-800 only.

He challenged Kamalanthan to reveal the full list of Indian students who received matriculation seats.

Meanwhile, Thiruvengadam also slammed MIC for delaying the processing of 333 qualified students who were rejected and who appealed to the MIC.

On Sunday, Thiruvengadam submitted a list of 333 rejected students to MIC for further action.

“It is already three days and we’ve still not received a fruitful answer from MIC.

“It is strange that the MIC’s willing to boycott the Perak administration for a single speaker post but kept mum on the matriculation seats meant for Indian community,” he added.

He also said that the parents are planning a massive gathering in front of Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s office on Wednesday next week at 1pm.