GUA MUSANG: The presence of Orang Asli students at Sekolah Kebangsaan (SK) Tohoi has now doubled to 219 since the school’s opening two weeks ago after the tragedy about four years ago when five students were found dead.
SK Tohoi, Parents and Teachers’ Association (PIBG) chairman Eder Baharom said, in the last four years only about 100 Orang Asli pupils attended school, as some parents had stopped their children from going to school for fear of the tragedy.
He said the increased attendance of the pupils proved that the parents had forgotten the tragedy and wanted their children to focus on their studies because they did not want them to be left behind.
He said most of the pupils living far away from the school were also provided accommodations in a dormitory which was closely monitored by the school management to avoid the recurrence of the tragedy.
“We see that there are classes especially in Year Four that are so crowded with up to 43 students,“ he said when met at Pos Tohoi, here, today.
In the August 2015 incident, seven pupils disappeared and five of them were found dead while two were found alive, and after the tragedy some parents did not send their children to school causing the attendance at the school to decline.
Five Orang Asli pupils found dead at the Tohoi river after missing from the school’s hostel were Sasa Sobrie, 8, Ika Ayel, 9, Linda Rosli, 8, Haikal Yaacob, 8, and Juvina David, 7. while the two who were still alive were Miksudiar Aluj, 11, and Norieen Yaakob, 10.
A father in the post, Asut Along, 51, said parents were increasingly forgetting the tragedy concerned and were sending their children back to school and staying in the dormitory.
He said, after a long time, they thought everything had ended, and wanted their child to focus on their studies.
“However, we ask that the parents be allowed to visit their children staying at the hostel at all times to ensure a high level of security of the pupils,“ he said. — Bernama
