Ministry: St Thomas school name ended when church took back land

PETALING JAYA: The education ministry has attempted to clear the air on the controversy over a reported name change for the historic St Thomas secondary and primary schools in Kuantan by clarifying that the name ceased to exist after the church that owned the land took it back.

Deputy Education Minister P Kamalanathan was reported by The Star today as saying that the onus was on the church if it wanted the name to continue.

He said some people had jumped to conclusions and accused the government of renaming the school to Sekolah Mahkota Abdullah.

“The land doesn’t belong to the ministry. The church owns the land. The day the land where the St Thomas school stood was given back to the church, it put an end to the school,” he was quoted as saying.

“The pupils from both the schools were forced to move and share their facilities with SK Teruntum and SMK Sultan Abu Bakar,” he added.

According to the report, the land was given back to the church following a legal tussle with the government in 2012.

It said the former site of the St Thomas secondary school is now home to Regent International School while the primary school grounds have been abandoned.

Kamalanathan said the move to house the affected St Thomas pupils with two other schools nearby was a temporary measure, until the new primary and secondary schools are built to accommodate them.

“Therefore, the schools built by the government would carry new names. The name St Thomas ceased the day the church took back the land,” he was quoted as saying.

The Star had reported on Nov 25 that the schools would have their name changed to Sekolah Mahkota Abdullah once they are relocated to a new building.

Pahang state health, human resources and special functions committee chairman Norol Azali Sulaiman was reported as saying that the education department had deemed “St Thomas” to be no longer suitable.

An online petition calling on the government to keep the name has garnered more than 12,000 signatures thus far. -FMT