Parents who are fighting to keep the Seaport Tamil primary school at its original site in Kelana Jaya will be starting their own classes after the Selangor Education Department refused to provide teachers at the old building.
The announcement was made after a protest outside the school this afternoon in response to Deputy Education Minister P Kamalanathan’s insistence that they move to the new building at Kampung Lindungan some 9km away.
This is despite the Selangor government - which owns the land through the Selangor State Development Corporation (PKNS) - had declared that it was prepared to gazette the landfor the Tamil school.
"We have the textbooks, we have the tables; if the Education Ministry refuses to help us, we will start without them with the rakyat's help," said Malaysian Tamilan Today Welfare Association national secretary K Gunasekaran (right).
Gunasekaran - who is a former teacher - said he and other volunteer teachers can attend classes like normal which will start on Feb 15 after Ponggal, the Tamil New Year.
He added that the 24 students who have been attending classes under a tent next door will no longer do so and will move into the school premises despite it being closed down.
"This is a PKNS-owned land and the Selangor government has said that it is okay with the school, so I don't see why we can't use it," he said.
'De facto headmaster'
The students' parents there also decided to have G Murugasu as the school's de facto headmaster.
Murugasu (right) has served at the Seaport school as a contract teacher for more than six years from 2003 to 2007 and from 2009 to 2011, and was a former headmaster at a Tamil school in Negri Sembilan.
The parents are refusing to move to the new school in Kampung Lindungan by the same name as they claim it is too far and transportation is too expensive to foot as they are mostly low-income earners.
Murugasu appealed to the Education Ministry to restore the school's license at the original site so that the students can begin their classes formally.
"It is not that we want to protest, we are just appealing nicely that the license be returned so that these students can study in a proper environment," he said.
Meanwhile, Malaysia Tamil School Boards president R Kannan (left) noted that the site where the students are supposed to moved to was initially named SJK (T) Kampung Lindungan when it was first completed, but later “hijacked” Seaport's school name, and by extension its license, to exist.
"This is daylight robbery... the government should either give back Seaport its license or give the one in Kampung Lindungan a new license," he said.
Also there to show support was Bock Tai Hee, who is adviser to the SJK (C) Damansara Save Our School action committee.
The action committee had been set up in response to a similar case in 2001, where the original SJK (C) Damansara was shut down.
It was finally reopened in 2009 after the ruling coalition suffered heavy losses among Chinese voters.
The announcement was made after a protest outside the school this afternoon in response to Deputy Education Minister P Kamalanathan’s insistence that they move to the new building at Kampung Lindungan some 9km away.
This is despite the Selangor government - which owns the land through the Selangor State Development Corporation (PKNS) - had declared that it was prepared to gazette the landfor the Tamil school."We have the textbooks, we have the tables; if the Education Ministry refuses to help us, we will start without them with the rakyat's help," said Malaysian Tamilan Today Welfare Association national secretary K Gunasekaran (right).
Gunasekaran - who is a former teacher - said he and other volunteer teachers can attend classes like normal which will start on Feb 15 after Ponggal, the Tamil New Year.
He added that the 24 students who have been attending classes under a tent next door will no longer do so and will move into the school premises despite it being closed down.
"This is a PKNS-owned land and the Selangor government has said that it is okay with the school, so I don't see why we can't use it," he said.
'De facto headmaster'
The students' parents there also decided to have G Murugasu as the school's de facto headmaster.
Murugasu (right) has served at the Seaport school as a contract teacher for more than six years from 2003 to 2007 and from 2009 to 2011, and was a former headmaster at a Tamil school in Negri Sembilan.The parents are refusing to move to the new school in Kampung Lindungan by the same name as they claim it is too far and transportation is too expensive to foot as they are mostly low-income earners.
Murugasu appealed to the Education Ministry to restore the school's license at the original site so that the students can begin their classes formally.
"It is not that we want to protest, we are just appealing nicely that the license be returned so that these students can study in a proper environment," he said.
Meanwhile, Malaysia Tamil School Boards president R Kannan (left) noted that the site where the students are supposed to moved to was initially named SJK (T) Kampung Lindungan when it was first completed, but later “hijacked” Seaport's school name, and by extension its license, to exist."This is daylight robbery... the government should either give back Seaport its license or give the one in Kampung Lindungan a new license," he said.
Also there to show support was Bock Tai Hee, who is adviser to the SJK (C) Damansara Save Our School action committee.
The action committee had been set up in response to a similar case in 2001, where the original SJK (C) Damansara was shut down.
It was finally reopened in 2009 after the ruling coalition suffered heavy losses among Chinese voters.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.