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IPOH: A housewife is unhappy that the Education Ministry will not allow her eight-year-old son to be transferred from his national school in Kuala Kangsar to a Tamil vernacular school.
The 37-year-old woman, who declined to be named for fear that her son would be targeted in class, said she had sent two appeals to the ministry but both were rejected.
She claimed the latest rejection last month stated that it was “not the policy” to allow transfers of students from national schools to vernacular schools.
“I don’t understand why they can allow students to transfer to national schools but not the other way round,” she said when contacted yesterday.
In February, the woman lodged a police report claiming that a female teacher had caned her son and three other boys for turning up late for an Arabic language class.
However, the school insisted that it did not force any non-Muslim pupil to attend the Arabic language classes.
Unhappy with that school, she transferred her son out temporarily to his current school while awaiting approval for his transfer to a vernacular school.
Ipoh Barat MP M. Kulasegaran asked why the ministry appeared to be reluctant to allow transfers to vernacular schools and appeared discriminatory.
“Many parents have complained about this same policy,” he said at a press conference.
When contacted, Perak education director Datuk Mohamed Zakaria Mohd Noor said the policy was meant to encourage racial integration.
“We advise the parents (of this pupil) to stay in the national school. Whatever complaints you have, please come forward and we will discuss them seriously,” he added.
