Penang pushes for Tamil secondary school

GEORGE TOWN (Feb 19, 2014): The request for a sole Tamil secondary school to be established in Penang was rejected as the Education Act 1996 only provides for national secondary schools (SMK) to be set up.
This was revealed in a letter from the Education Ministry dated Jan 8 this year to Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng after questions arose when the ministry turned down a request for such a school to be built in the state.
Lim, who had distributed copies of the letter to the media at a press conference today said he would appeal to the ministry, helmed by Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, to reconsider the matter.
"We are only asking for one Tamil secondary school which was not excessive and it will be the sole school of its type in the entire country. I will be appealing to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak if the appeal to the Education Minister is not successful," he said.
Last year, Lim sent three letters to Muhyiddin on the matter and offered land in Butterworth to set up the school.
Deputy Education II Minister P. Kamalanathan nonetheless was reported to have called upon Indian parents to enrol their children in Tamil primary schools before asking for a secondary school.
The latest development has not gone down well with the community with the Penang Hindu Association (PHA) urging Indian MPs to form a non-partisan parliamentary caucus to lobby for the matter.
The issue has been a long standing one among the Indian community with the Penang MIC requesting one while the PHA had organised a 10,000 signature petition in support for such a school.