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/