The PTA said all those involved had apologised over the issue and that moving forward, there will be more transparency practised by the school.
“The lesson we have learned, as acknowledged by the school’s principal, Ande Noor Munawarah Bachok, is that going forward, the flow of information must be transparent and made known to all, across the board.
“The matter was accepted by the PTA committee because those involved have apologised,” it said in a statement that was undersigned by seven committee members.
The PTA also detailed its findings on the issue as well as the measures needed to prevent such an incident from occurring again.
“We found that there was no due process in the approval and organisation of the SPM workshop, which was held only for Muslim students at a hotel on Jan 19 and 20.
“The PTA committee members were not at all informed of such a programme,” it said adding that the workshop sessions covered Islamic topics, as well as Chemistry and Additional Mathematics.
The PTA said two more programmes were organised, on Jan 26 and 27, respectively, with the first held in the school for all Form 5 students, and the second one at the same hotel for “21 students who had failed or were ‘near misses’ in their examination”.
It added that due process was again not observed in the organisation of the Jan 27 programme.
In a Twitter thread on Jan 23, social media user @sangria200 posted a series of screenshots of a WhatsApp conversation in a school chat group where parents alleged that the school had discriminated against non-Muslim students by holding the SPM workshop only for Muslim students at a hotel on Jan 19 and 20.
In response, the education ministry said the workshop was not discriminatory and was intended for all the students, adding that it was broken up into different sessions to avoid disrupting the festivities for students celebrating Chinese New Year.
On the measures to prevent a recurrence of such incidents, the PTA said details of all school programmes, especially those held outside the school, “must henceforth be communicated to the entire PTA committee, right from the initial planning stages”.
“Due process for the approval, organising and staging of such events and programmes will then be forwarded to all PTA members.
“The SMK IJ Convent WhatsApp chat group will be completely transparent, with guidelines on ethical communication within the group made known to all,” it added.
The PTA committee said it will also ensure that all future school events or programmes will be conducted fairly and equally for all students, in adherence to the call made by the Sultan of Johor, Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar.