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http://malaysiakini.com/news/77437 |
| K Kabilan | Jan 25, 08 3:17pm |
| A MIC branch leader with strong links to the party leadership has been accused of using his position as the head of the Parent-Teacher Association (PIBG) to create a culture of fear in an elite Tamil school in Subang Jaya.
To date, the teachers alone have lodged nine police reports on Murali’s various acts, including instances of issuing threats, harassment and violent conduct. Parents also lodged three separate reports and they had sought the intervention of the Education Ministry, state education department, district education office and the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam). “However, we have not heard anything from any of them. He is still ‘ruling’ the school, in disregard of the school headmaster and teachers and by ignoring the wishes of the parents,” a parent complained to Malaysiakini today.
“All the teachers are in fear of him. He would just enter a classroom and start questioning the teachers on unrelated matters,” said KS Selva, whose two children are studying in the school. Selva added that complaints made by the teachers to their headmaster too had fallen on deaf ears. In fact, he added, a headmaster and two senior assistants have been transferred out following their continuous complaints against Murali. “Murali openly claims that he has the right connection in the ministry and the MIC. He uses this school as a place for him to build his political base,” added another parent A Chandramohan. Bad for students, school “If this continues, more teachers will leave the school. Parents too are going to take their children out. He has to be stopped,” added Chandramohan who has two daughters studying in the school. Another parent, P Vijayakumar said that he had transferred his daughter out of the school after seeing Murali’s destructive role in the PIBG. “He is not helping the school at all. He is a politician who wants to control the school. He wants to show that he is actually running the school and in doing so, he is destroying this educational institution,” he added. “As PIBG chairperson, Murali has no right to interfere in the administration of the school. He has no right to question or scold the teachers. He should just be helping the school in non-administrative matters,” said Vijayakumar. Murali has been the PIBG chairperson since 2004 and in the past four years, complaints of various nature have been made against him – ranging from harassment to abuse of PIBG funds, according to several other parents who spoke to Malaysiakini. “The students are directly seeing Murali’s robust actions on a regular basis. They see their teachers being warned and threatened. They are scared and this is affecting their studies,” said Vijayakumar. “On the other hand, teachers are also getting fed up with Murali’s actions. If this continues, they might just seek a transfer. The school and students will end up losers,” he said.
They are also disappointed that the Education Ministry has not acted on their numerous complaints. “We were told that he has the support of some top level MIC leaders who continue to back him,” added another parent. PIBG suspended Meanwhile Malaysiakini learnt that the ministry has suspended the PIBG with immediate effect. When contacted Murali said that he received a letter from the ministry today. “How can they suspend the PIBG without giving any reasons?” he asked, He also denied all the allegations made against him, saying that these allegations were made by parents who had lost to him in the previous PIBG elections. “They have influenced the teachers to go against me and all these are the doings of this small group of parents,” he said. He added that he has also lodged a police report against a teacher for falsely accusing him of threatening her. The suspension of the PIBG would mean that the election slated to take place this Sunday would have to be postponed until further notice. |
Parents and teachers at the SRJK (T) Tun Sambanthan in USJ15 – the first Tamil smart school – are complaining that the man, S Murali, is using his PIBG position to strengthen his political base, a charge denied by the businessman.
The latest police report against Murali was lodged by a teacher in the school on Jan 14, claiming that the PIBG chairperson has issued a death threat to her. She had previously lodged another report on Jan 26, 2006 stating that she was worried of her safety after being threatened by Murali.
The parents recently submitted a memorandum to Suhakam, asking the rights body to intervene in ensuring that their rights are protected.
This school is only good for politics I guess.
I don’t care for any of the school’s politics. We choose to send our child to Tamil school hoping our child will get good care but I’m just helpless seeing what is happening in the school. The teachers cane the children recklessly.
Sometimes it is really ironic to see the teachers who should hlep the kids to grow good are proud to hit the children who have just joined the school to remind them if they have missed a homework or such. They are just small kids who are entering the school with lot of dreams. If they are going to be threatened and caned in the beginning itself how would they evolve into a good personality? Can’t the teachers call the parents and let them know if there is something wrong and try to work together. I just see the teachers go out of emotion and hit the children. I wouldn’t blame all the teachers as I haven’t seen all the teachers doing so but certainly there are teachers who cane the kids regularly. What is the point of sending our children to a school where our kids are being ill treated.
The sad thing is there are parents who agree for the kid to be hit and the teachers use that as an excuse saying that some parents do tell them to hit the kids. The parents may not be learned and I would think it is the responsibility of the teachers to let the parents know spanking is not good and I also think it is illegal to spank a kid.
Further the children’s restrooms in the schools are also smelly. The school has a good infrastructure facilities and I hope it will be used in good way.
I think it is time for the teachers to come to sense of their own responsibilities and make the school a better place for the children.
see what happens when just one MIC fellow could ruin a society .
If the ‘thalai’ not correct how to expect all the ‘vaalu’ to be good .
Here it is not only about MIC, there is much more. This one guy from MIC may be wrong or not. But the unfortunate fact is most Tamil schools are not doing well whether it has this kind of guy or not. So I think there is so much more that needs a clear study for the good of our children.
I had a friend who just died of heart attack two days ago. He enrolled his child in Castlefield Tamil school, but after realising the school was not competent inspite of a brand new building and a lot of facilities he changed his daughter to Puchong batu14 school. But he was unhappy there too and shifted the child to a school in Sri Petaling. He was not attached to any politics but he was just a person who liked Tamil and wanted Tamil people to do well in the society. He was not any public figure but a common man. Look at the common man’s struggles to give his child a good education.
It was not only him I’ve seen so many other parents go through the same ordeal in many other schools. I did hear Batu14 school was getting good results and I did take my daughter there to see if she likes that school to register her there but the moment we entered she said is that the toilet smell, I don’t want this school. It was just in the entrance itself she said that and it was true the smell was so foul. Finally we chose Tun Sambanthan hoping that it will be good but then we are disappointed.
What is wrong with the Tamil Schools? Instead of focusing on 100% pass results these schools do concentrate on the number of students who can achieve straight A’s. As a result average children and below average children are ignored. Above average children are pushed to perform better. There is pressure everywhere. Caning is their teaching aid. No wonder somewhere a child has killed herself for not being able to get the A’s she wanted. Hmmm….
I hope there is someone out there to suspend/ban this present PIBG under YDP Murali (now parti PKR!) with immediate effect!please help to preserve cicilization and decency among the school culture.
for your information,im a sk student and the toilet there is smelly too. in sekolah rendah there is only kids that using the toilet.so they did not no how to use the toilet properly.this is parent responsibility to teach their children.
stupid lah the pibg….ask him go n die lahhhhhh…..like to be the pibg always