At last, there’s some news on the allocation asked by MIC in order to complete the renovation of Tamil schools and construction of additional or replacement buildings for schools. The initial allocation of RM100 was deemed in sufficient due to escalation in material costs. There was a request for additional RM60 million, but according to news below, the request is for RM53 million. Not sure how much will be approved, since government is short of funds and even operating expenditure is being reduced by 10-15% next year.

MIC is awaiting clearance from the Finance Ministry on the party’s request for an additional allocation of RM53 million for the construction of new buildings in several Tamil schools, including the SJK (Tamil) Sungai Tok Pawang in Kedah’s Jerai constituency.

MIC president S Samy Vellu said at least RM1.6 million was needed to construct a new building for the SJK (Tamil) Sungai Tok Pawang on a piece of land reportedly already earmarked for the school.

“This project (SJK (Tamil) Sungai Tok Pawang) was supposed to have started some time back but because of the escalation in the construction cost of the Tamil schools, it had to be deferred along with several other (Tamil) schools,” he said in a statement today.

Samy Vellu was commenting on a Malaysiakini report today which said that despite a 5.5 acre land allocated by the Kedah state government last April for the SJK (Tamil) Sungai Tok Pawang, there was still no word on the construction of the building.

Samy Vellu said the request for the RM53 million extra allocation to cover the escalated construction cost from the original RM130 million allocated by the government, was made to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, who is also the finance minister when he chaired the special cabinet committee for the development of the Indian community recently.

He said the RM53 million additional allocation was “over and above” the RM100 million approved by Najib under the two economic stimulus packages and another RM30 million approved during Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s tenure as prime minister.

“Once the additional allocation has been approved, work on the projects can start after tender processes are completed by the Public Works Department (PWD),” he said, adding that all allocations from the Finance Ministry would be channeled as usual through the PWD.

Samy Vellu said MIC had listed out many Tamil schools which required new buildings, and construction work would commence in stages, depending on the availability of funds from the Finance Ministry.

“The government has already rebuilt many Tamil schools over the years through MIC, and many more will be redeveloped,” he said.

He also said MIC was working with the Education Ministry to switch partially-aided Tamil schools into fully-aided schools.

I hope they update the list of schools, complete with the work done and costs. Photos will be great too. Is that part of some KPI for MIC?

The issue arose after news about SJKT Sg Tok Pawang school came to light. This school has been sharing compound with a national school for two decades:

Sekolah Kebangsaan Tok Pawang and Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Tamil Sg Tok Pawang share the same compound, but it’s a different story with the canteen.

SJK(T) pupils have been denied access to the canteen. This was decided by SK Tok Pawang teachers after frequent quarrels between the pupils of the two schools. [err..why not just adjust the break time so that it doesn’t clash?]

The SJK(T) PIBG then organised a makeshift canteen for the 170 Tamil school students at a corridor behind the building.

Students of both schools also do not share classrooms.

Twenty-three years ago the students of the Tamil school were accommodated at SK Tok Pawang after they had to abandon their own building due to pollution caused by the nearby Lee Rubber building.

The Tamil school received a new lease of life when the Kedah state government allocated 5.5 acres of land to build a new school on April 3 this year.

Menteri Besar Azizan Abdul Razak, accompanied by deputy P Ramasamy and the current state exco S Manikumar, attended the groundbreaking ceremony to a joyful atmosphere of excited schoolchildren and parents.

At the event, he said that the state government is giving the land to the school without any premium charge. They have also waived the assessment and the school needed to pay only a token sum of RM10 for the land.

This happened about eight months ago. The situation has not changed since then.

SJK (T) Tok Pawang students still share the school building with SK Tok Pawang pupils. There is no sign of a new building being built on the land that was given to the Tamil school.

Azizan had, at the groundbreaking ceremony, clearly indicated that the state government had done their job by giving the land.

It was now up to the school to negotiate with the Education Ministry to obtain the RM1.6 million needed to build the school.

Jerai MP Mohd Firdaus Jaafar said that now the ball was in MIC’s court to “pressure the minister (of education) at the federal level to make sure the building gets built.”

Balasingham, 35, says that he had been waiting for the school to be built since the day he left the school when he was 12.

His daughter now attends the school in Standard 1, but nothing has changed.

At the moment, students have no choice but to go about their familar routine of sharing the same compound and building, and having their meals under a a makeshift canteen.

Thus far, there is not even a hint of a new school building emerging on the land provided to them.

All you can see is the tractor used by the Kedah menteri besar during the groundbreaking ceremony. It sits forlornly by several oil palm trees, a sad reminder of what should have been.