Many people would have not heard about JKT Ladang Bukit Bertam till two days ago. This small estate school is quite low-profile (and under-enrolled). But surprisingly this school gave birth to one of our country’s first Harvard graduates – the late Datuk K.Pathmanaban, a former MIC vice-president and deputy minister. That his alma mater suffers this fate tells a lot about the status of Tamil schools and Indian community in the country.

The school which started in 1920s have been having low enrolment for last few years, which begets the question: what steps have been taken to alleviate the situation.  The school is located in the large Bukit Bertam Estate in Linggi. As with many other Indian enclaves in the past, the estate sees more foreign workers while the Indians move out to cities and towns. Unfortunately, the school doesn’t follow them too. So, what would you except other than dwindling enrolment? So, questions arise: what have been the Education Ministry and its agencies been doing all this while?

Up till yesterday, the school faced a possible closure. Now, would anyone be blamed if they thought that the inaction of the ministry and agencies is tantamount to aiming to close vernacular education? You don’t give enough money, you don’t take enough effort to convert them to fully-aided status, you don’t allow new schools to be built, and you are not bothered about relocation. So what does that mean? What would the public, especially the Indian community think? The action doesn’t reflect the words.

There are many schools with similar situation and its just a matter of time before a school closes down.

Oh ya, can blame the school right? Why never take action? Well, what action should the school take? Picket? HM to issue public statement and risk losing job?

What about MIC – what steps have they taken in last few years to solve this particular problem? We have to ask them since they are part of ruling state government for last 50 years. It seems that state MIC deputy leader V.S. Mogan will meet the state authorities.

Maybe its time for an Indian deputy education minister or minister to ensure some sort of balance is in place.

This is what the school parent-teacher association chairman D. Elangovan says, among others:

He said one pupil was supposed to join for the new term but her parents decided to enrol her in another school in Malacca.

Elangovan said that with foreigners making up most of the workers at the estate, it was pointless to maintain a Tamil school there.

“We hope the authorities will help us relocate to another place where the community needs a Tamil school. The school has teachers, textbooks and satellite TV and all these are being wasted,’’ he told The Star.

Elangovan said the school was located about 3km inside the sprawling oil palm plantation and this made it difficult for teachers.

The school moved to its present location from another site in the estate in 1978 with one class for each standard. But since then, the number of classes were reduced to only two as enrolment suffered.

Last year, there were only five pupils enrolled. This year, there were only three.

To make matters worse, Elangovan said the school had no canteen and its half-wooden structure was also unsafe due to termite infestation.

“Save SJKT Ladang Bukit Bertam School” ad hoc committee chairman Ramesh Patel suggested that it would be best if the school was relocated to nearby Kota, which had about 200 Indian families.

Luckily, 13 students registered yesterday, probably effort of teachers, PTA, parents, local MIC folks etc. to ensure the school can continue running for next year. Now, just to maintain the school, someone has to fork out extra cash to pay for transportation. Students have to study in  a school with termite infestation and no canteen.

Can you see something here: a poor community needs to part with funds to ensure the survival of a school for another year. Students have to be moved from another location and sacrificed to study in this school. This situation could have been averted if there was proper planning and action by the relevant authorities much earlier.

“Save SJKT Ladang Bukit Bertam” ad hoc committee chairman Ramesh Patel said 12 of the students would be ferried to the school from Rembau some 25km away every morning while another one was from the estate.

“We have no choice. It may be a temporary measure but it is the only way we can think of to keep the school going,” he said, adding that several parents contacted him after the school’s plight was highlighted in The Star yesterday.

… With the latest enrolment, the school will now have students in Year One up to Year Five.

Eight of the students are from the Vivekananda Home in Rembau while another four are from Batu Hampar.

State MIC deputy chief V. S. Mogan said the school’s sudden increase in enrolment was good news as it meant the school could continue to function as normal until its relocation was finalised.

“We are hoping to increase enrolment and are looking into getting students from Kota, Rembau to attend the school,” Mogan said.

“We have already identified some 30 students who are currently attending school in Tampin. This school is about the same distance away for these students and with free transportation it would be a better choice for them,” he said.