Call on Palanivel to raise in Cabinet the win win formula for the Seaport Tamil school issue.

Press Statement by M Kula Segaran, DAP National Vice Chairman and MP for Ipoh Barat in Ipoh on January 15, 2104

Call on Palanivel to raise in Cabinet the win win formula for the Seaport Tamil school issue.

3 days ago, MIC President Datuk Palanivel said that Tamil schools with low enrolment would not be closed down and such schools would instead be relocated to areas with a higher density of the Indian population.

"This is the government's promise to the Indian community...not a single Tamil school will be closed down,” he said.

While his remarks are welcomed, they did not address the issue of the relocation of the 80 year old Seaport Tamil primary school whereby parents have vowed to keep the school at its original site.

Was he not aware of the issue or was he ignoring the request of local parents?

4 days ago, media has reported that  in response to deputy minister P Kalamanathan’s insistence that the parents send their children to the new school building at Kampung Lindungan some 9km away, parents who are fighting to keep the 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.

Obviously, the Education Department has not learned any lesson from the famous save SJKC Damansara campaign whereby parents displayed determination to keep the school and emerged victorious in the end.

It is disappointing that after the SJKC Damansara issue, the Education Department has not understood the need of adopting a community friendly education  policy.

Since Selangor government that owns the land through the Selangor State Development Corporation (PKNS) - had declared that it was prepared to gazette the land for the Tamil school, why can’t the Education Department keep the old building as a community school?

A community school will solve the problems of inconvenient and expensive transport problems. Its near distance will also mean that children can have more sleeping hours . 

I call on Palanivel to raise the issue in the Cabinet and propose the win win formula of keeping the original school as a community school while opening the new school building at Kampung Lindungan to those who wish to go there.

There is no reason to reject such a win win formula unless BN government‘s policy is not to increase any additional Tamil school.