KUALA LUMPUR: The Education Ministry has denied a news portal’s report about a Hindu student forced to study Pendidikan Islam at a school in Negri Sembilan.
Director-General of Education Datuk Dr Amin Senin said an investigation showed that the school had never forced the student to attend Pendidikan Islam classes, and that the student had been attending Moral Education classes since January 2017.
“The school allows students to attend Moral Education classes based on the information given by the father without producing a birth certificate” he said. “Based on the information given the (student’s) father, the school considered the pupil as a Hindu and allowed her to attend Pendidikan Moral classes.”
Amin said the student had been approved by the Negri Sembilan Education Department in 2017 to be registered without documentation. He also said that until now, the parents had not handed over a copy of the birth certificate to the school as required.
“The detailed review by the Ministry of Education following the portal report found that the student was enrolled in the National Registration Department as a Muslim and her mother is also a Muslim,“ he added.
According to the statement, under the Education Act 1996, every Muslim student must follow Islamic Education subjects which are core subjects under the National Curriculum for Muslim children.
Amin also pointed out that the school was in compliance with the evidence that the student was a Muslim.
Therefore, he said, it did not arise that the student was forced to follow Islamic Education.
“The Ministry of Education understands the situation faced by the parents.
“However, due to the case of the mother’s religion status case involves a court process. Appropriate actions will be taken by the ministry in line with the court’s decision,“ he said.
On Feb 4, Grab driver P. Manivanan, 50, alleged that his ‘Hindu’ daughter, M. Luganeshvari was being forced to take Islamic Studies classes in school. He urged the Education Ministry to intervene to resolve the dispute over his daughter’s status.