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SJKT Batu 14 Puchong fund for classrooms

July 3rd, 2011
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They got Rm150k from one MIC guy and RM130k from Selangor government. Still need about RM50k more. Don’t think MOE would give any money, so depends on makkal for support.

 

AFTER numerous attempts to raise funds for additional classrooms, SJK (T) Batu 14 finally received RM113,000 from the state government.

The school’s Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) chairman Murali Mathukrayan received the cheque from Puchong MP Gobind Singh Deo last Saturday.

Of that amount, RM3,000 will be given to 200 poor students who could not afford school fees.

According to Murali, the school desperately needs the extra classrooms as the number of students has doubled from 700 to 1,400 over the 10 years.

“We had to use the school labs and the library as makeshift classrooms.

“Over the years, we have been applying for funds to build classrooms from the Education Ministry but we only received a letter from them stating that ‘the application will be considered’.

“It costs RM330,000 to build eight classrooms. We received RM150,000 from an individual from MIC,” he said, adding that the remaining amount would be raised through fundraising efforts.

Gobind said it was a collective responsibility to ensure that there are sufficient facilities for schoolchildren.

“I would also like to call upon other PTAs in need of funds to come forward, we will help if we can,” he said.

source: http://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2011/6/29/central/8978938&sec=central

 

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Roundtable Conference on Tamil Schools

June 29th, 2011
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This is a good news, even though it is very very late. Well, better late than never. Of course having roundtables, squaretables or notables makes no difference if no action is taken, as mentioned by Naragan in his letter it will be a just “wayang kulit” (shadow play). I fully agree with his arguments – we see lots of rhetorics, chest-thumping and promises. But when it comes down to action, the numbers speak for themselves. No one can hide from this fact.  Just check the allocated budget and the expenditure for the last 6 or 7  Malaysia Plans.  In terms of percentages, there’s very little allocation all around. Most of the time, its ad-hoc token sums given to troubleshoot school problems. Never a long term strategic solution.

Let’s look at a simple issue – license for a school. What hinders the Education Minister from issuing license to relocate a school? Lack of land? Lack of money? Lack of agreement from school/PTA?

Next is status of school – fully or partially aided. What causes a school to be partially aided? The size of land? The ownership of land on which the school sits on?

I pass by Bandar Bukit Puchong 2 often. I notice a brand new school being build  – a religious primary school (and its quite big!). Just imagine if build a national school there – everyone can study? Why the school can get such a big land in a new housing area? And vernacular schools can’t even get land to relocate? Or relocate to shitty areas? If Chinese housing developer still OK can help to relocate Chinese schools by donating land (for example SJKC Ladang Harcroft by IOI – relocate from Sitiawan to Puchong – across states!). Tamil schools need government intervention because not many developers will be willing to donate land.  Then, there’s not many philanthropists who are willing/able to help out with financing the construction. End up, we get small buildings and lesser facilities. Few years down the lane, same problem recur.

BTW, I don’t think the teachers of schools closed down will lose their job. They will be relocated to other schools or pooled in some district/state education offices.

So, I wonder how seriously this roundtable will taken.  will it be just talk, talk, talk and nothing comes out in the end? Most likely yes.

Since things are at critical level, the committee should suggest that every new housing project in areas/district/mukim with at least 7% Indian community population  should allocate land for relocating tamil schools from underserved areas (if we take schools with less than 50 students, that’s about 250 schools). And this to be made a rule in next month. Now, it would be interesting to see how that works!  Next, all schools should be allocated a minimum of 5 acres, and given an allocation of RM20 million per school for construction. That’s just R500 million, which can be spread over 5 years. Every year, relocate and construct 50 schools. Good boost for economy, no?

Finally, ensure that the overseeing committee consists of NGOs, as the developers, local councils, land offices, state governments, education departments etc. cannot be trusted to carry out the orders.

Several Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat MPs held a historic roundtable conference on the future of Tamil schools.

Held in Parliament today, the conference was organised by DAP’s Ipoh Barat MP M Kulasegaran.

He said discussions were held to set up a steering committee to chart a blueprint for the future of Tamil schools in the country.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz, who chaired the conference, promised that the government would not close down or demolish Tamil schools in the future.

“What the Indian community should to do now is engage with all political parties no matter BN or Pakatan, become a united group to raise Tamil school issues,” he said.

Present at the conference were Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department SK Devamany, Federal Territories and Urban Wellbeing Deputy Minister M Saravanan, DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang and Penang Deputy Chief Minister P Ramasamy.

Others who attended the conference were MPs M Manoharan (DAP-Teluk Intan), S Manikavasagam (PKR-Kapar), Charles Santiago (DAP-Klang), R Sivarasah (PKR-Subang), Selangor exco Dr Xavier Jeyakumar, Sungkai assemblyman A Sivaneson, Senawang state assemblyman P Guna and Senators Daljit Singh Dalliwal and S Ramakrishnan.

Schools facing closure

Kulasegaran expressed concern over the situation of Tamil schools located on private land as well as the issue of partially and fully-aided schools and the danger of closure of some 50% of Tamil schools.

“The danger concerns Tamil schools which have less than 50 students and this involves nearly half of the 523 schools. There are 64 Tamil schools with less than 25 students which are facing closure. This will cause some 200 teachers to lose their jobs,” he said.

He added that in the last 30 years, 68 Tamils schools had been closed down.

Devamany said that over the last three years, the government had spent RM300 million on Tamil schools.

The MIC vice-president also stressed that his party was willing to work with any group or political organisation to develop Tamil schools.

Meanwhile, NGO Tamil Foundation suggested that the government grant licenses to relocate several Tamil schools from the estates to urban areas.

According to statistics in 2010, 84% of the Indian community were living in urban areas.

Licence for Simpang Lima school

Sivaneson suggested that the government change its policy that all schools which owned land must be recognised as fully-aided schools.

Currently, schools with five acres and more were eligible to be fully-aided schools.

A resolution was also passed at the conference that the government must immediately grant licence to the Simpang Lima Tamil cchool in Seri Andalas, Selangor.

The school was the first Tamil school picked as a cluster school among the 30 schools appointed under the Education Ministry’s cluster of excellent schools programme. However, the school was facing a shortage of places for the 2,400 pupils.

Kulasegaran said that the second meeting would be held on July 8 to select the members of the steering committee.

It is learnt that of the 18, there would be six members from BN, six from Pakatan and the rest from Tamil Foundation and other NGOs.

source: http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/2011/06/27/bn-pakatan-reps-meet-over-tamil-schools/

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National Science Fair for Young Children Day 2

June 27th, 2011
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Continuing from Day 1 yesterday (BTW, the photos are a bit darker at time due to flash malfunction. The battery leaked).

The exhibition hall at GMI:

Today was the big day for the teams. Both students and teacher will know who will be the champions for 2011.

The day started early at 7am with breakfast, followed by preparation for the public viewing session at 10am. So, the booth were a scene of hectic activity as students and teachers toiled to fix torn papers, top up materials, arrange their presentation and so on. In between, there was a talk on the judging process for the teachers in a separate venue.

Head Judge Mr Shan:

Students testing their equipments:

At 10am, the doors opened for public to enter the exhibition. The public session was until 2.30pm. Personally, I think the crowd was much less as compared to the Selangor/KL region fair held last year (that’s the one I attended, thus able to compare). Maybe because the hall is wider? Or is the location of GMI, which is quite secluded and relatively unknown to the Indian community? Anyway, I estimate about 300 to 500 people attended this fair today (excluding the students and teachers).

Attending to visitors:

Explaining to visitors:


Visitors:


Interested visitors:

Explaining their work:

Volunteers too are impressed:

During the public session, few booths were set up at the entrance. Among there are MISI (Malaysian Indian Science Intellectuals) who promoted their educational magazine for kids named Thumbi, DHRRA Malaysia, Arivan Fan Club (where I was on duty), Grolier Books, Tamil Foundation and so on. A few games and quizzes were held for visitor to liven up the environment.

DHRRA Malaysia booth:

Arivan Fan Club booth:

Quiz participants:

Telescope section:

At 3.20pm, the closing ceremony started. VIP was Dato’ Dr Jeyaindran of MyNadi. The crowd numbered about 800 people (including participants).

Participants:

First was speech by project director Capt Dr Viknesvaran. He said that 300 schools took part in the School Fair Roadshow, while the Science Fair saw participation of 274 schools this year.

Capt Dr Vicky:

This was followed by MCEF’s Mr Satish Ramachandran’s speech. He gave some suggestions on how to improve the fair for the coming year, for example focusing on certain theme, and also to compile CDs of the projects.

MCEF director Mr Satish Ramachandran:

Next to speak was head judge Mr Shanmugam who  mentioned about the judging process. He also mentioned that some of the teams needs to improve in terms of understanding the fundamental principles.

Head Judge Mr Shan:

Media appreciation followed, after which all the teams were invited on stage to receive participation certificates along with tokens of appreciation.

Presentation of participation certificates and tokens of appreciation to all the students:

This was then followed by MyNadi’s Dato’ Dr Jeyaindran’s speech. He announced that the top 5 winners will be given a trip to Petrosains KLCC and also to the Perdana University in Serdang. He also sprang a surprise by announcing that the 1st place winners (and the teachers) will be taken on a tour to Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in Bangalore!!! This is in collaboration with Air Asia and Indian High Commission. This is definitely a wonderful surprise for the participants, and added more tension to the tense environment. Everyone was waiting for the announcement.

MyNadi chairman Dato’ Dr Jeyaindran:

Two new categories were introduced this time: Most Innovative Project and Best Conference Paper. The winners are as below:

Most Innovative Project

Winner: SJKT Kangkar Pulai

2nd: SJKT Ramakrishna

3rd: SJKT Convent Seremban

SJKT Ramakrishna:

SJKT Convent:

Best Conference Paper

Winner: SJKT Kangkar Pulai

2nd: SJKT Sg Tukang

3rd: SJKT Yahya Awal

SJKT Kangkar Pulai:

There was another speech (to add to the tension!), this time by MISI representative Mr Saminathan.

Finally, the moment everyone was waiting for. The winners announcement.

5th place went to SJKT Mukundan

4th place: SJKT Methodist Kapar

3rd place: SJKT Permas Jaya

2nd place: SJKT Tun Aminah

Their booth:

and champions are SJKT Ladang Lanandron!

Their booth:

For the first time, the top three places were swept by schools from the same state, Johor.

The ceremony ended at 5.50pm, and the crowd slowly trickled away.

 

Photos Slideshow:

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National Science Fair for Young Children 2011 Day 1

June 26th, 2011
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This is the 4th year running the Science Fair (http://www.nsfyc.org/)  is being organised. I attended the central region competition last year while the national level competition was held in Kedah, which means I couldn’t attend it. The organisers this time include DHRRA Malaysia, Tamil Foundation, Vijayaratnam Foundation, MISI, Tamil Schools HM Council, Malaysian Government, MyNadi,  ECMLibra, MCEF, Putera MIC, Astro and few others.

This time, its being held at German Malaysia Institute (GMI) in Bangi. The location is next to the KWSP training center. If you can find the UKM Komuter station, then you can locate GMI.

This year, 60 schools are taking part. Representative from each state is proportionate to the number of Tamil schools in the state.  Each region had their own competition and the selected winners are now in the final round at national level.

The list of schools:

The students (and teachers) started arriving on Friday afternoon. I was at the venue on Friday night, and helped around a little bit. There were some activities like looking at planet Saturn via telescope.

Yesterday (Saturday) started at 8am with the student and teachers preparing their booths.

Preparing the booths:

 

At 9.30, students were given written test, followed by judges going around judging the projects. This took nearly 4 hours. The judges led by my ex-school teacher Mr Shan were impressed with the projects. BTW, met some of ex-uni mates like Capt Vicky, Vicky Balan, Sathia etc.

Judging Session photos:

 

I found that the students are quite well prepared. Their projects were amazing indeed. I’m sure the visitors will be equally amazed with the exhibitions on display.

One of the schools that interested me is SJKT Sg Biong from Kuala Kangsar. They have four young participants (I guess Year 3 and 4),which represents HALF their school population! They were regional champions. Must thank the school and teachers for their dedication.

SJKT Sg Biong:

 

The afternoon program involved the opening ceremony, but I had left by then. At night, there’s a conference for the children, whereby each team will present a paper.

Today morning will see a “viva” session whereby the students will answer questions based on their conference paper. This will be followed by opening of the exhibition for public from 10am till 2pm. The event ends with prize giving ceremony at 3.30pm.

OK, gotta make a move now. Will update the results later tonight in next posting.

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Tamil School in Gurun to be relocated?

June 2nd, 2011
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I think its not practical to keep the school in the same location if there’s very low enrolment. Relocation (to a better location) is good option.

As it is, if the estate wanted  the land back, the state goverment should allocate land nearby. So, our MP Kulasegaran should talk to his buddies in PR state government.

BTW, I think the school in Gurun is SJKT Kalaivaani, Padang Lembu.

 

Malaysia Nanban reported that parents of pupils studying at a Tamil school in an estate in Gurun had staged a demonstration after being informed that the school would be closed due to low enrolment.

Ipoh Barat MP M. Kulasegaran, who was present, said the 70-year-old school would be relocated to Gurun town as the estate wanted the land back.

According to him, the government cannot shut down a school even if there is only one student. The school has 26 pupils.

Kulasegaran said if this was allowed to happen, another 200 Tamil schools would have to close soon.

Kedah Tamil Schools Patrons Association president K. Duraisamy said parents should not register their children at the new school in Gurun.

He said that he would ask teachers to conduct classes in the nearby temple if the need arises.

source: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/6/2/nation/8822892&sec=nation

 

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