School's 'ban' on students wearing others' traditional attire under probe

A probe has been initiated into a case of a Selangor school that allegedly barred students from wearing the traditional clothes of other cultures during Merdeka celebrations in school.

According to an officer from the deputy education minister's office, the Selangor Education Department is conducting the probe and appropriate action will be revealed once the investigations are completed.

The officer, who cannot be named as he is not authorised to speak to the media, said Klang MP V Ganabatirau alerted the deputy minister's office of the matter this morning.

Earlier, Free Malaysia Today reported that a secondary school allegedly barred its students from wearing the traditional clothes of cultures that were not their own.

According to a student who spoke to the portal, the school also did not allow its Indian students to wear sarees to the event and those who wore the holy thread on their wrists were told to remove them.

“Chinese students were only allowed to wear the cheongsam or hanfu. Even more concerning, Indian students were denied the opportunity to wear sarees.

“Students who wore sarees were instructed by the discipline teacher to list their names on a sheet of paper titled ‘names of students who flouted the dress code’.

“These names will be recorded in the ‘Sistem Sahsiah Diri Murid’ (students’ personal records or SSDM), which could potentially impact the students’ future,” the student who only wanted to be identified as Susan told the portal.

According to the report, unhappy parents flooded the chat space of the parent-teacher WhatsApp group following the incident but the headmistress has yet to address the issue.

Malaysiakini has reached out to the school and is withholding its name pending a response.

‘Insensitive’ move

Commenting on the matter, Ganabatirau said that the purported barring was an “insensitive” move by the authority.

Klang MP V Ganabatirau

“Schools should be a place to foster unity and make students understand each others’ culture better.

“Such rulings will only further divide students. I'm worried if this is not stopped now, it will spread to other schools too,” he told Malaysiakini. - Mkini