From P Ramasamy

Let us save Sekolah Kebangsaan Assumption in Butterworth, Penang, from being closed down.

The school, which was known as Assumption Prime School, when it was first started in the 1930s by Christian missionaries, has been told it will be closed down on Feb 28.

The school was first located along Jalan Assumption in the mainland.

In 1995, the land on which the school was located was sold to a private party. As a result, the school was temporarily relocated to another place before it was established on the present private land.

Apparently, there was an arrangement between this landowner and the federal government (the education ministry) for the school to be located here before the land could be bought for the school.

However, nothing really happened; the federal government apparently reneged on the promise to buy the land for the school. Now, the owner wants it back.

Since there is no offer from the ministry to buy the existing land or find some other suitable site, the school has been told it will be closed.

I understand the school has been informed of the ministry’s decision to cancel the licence of the school soon, which means the name will be wiped out from the ministry’s records.

Currently, there are about 80 students in the school. The Christian missions have no interest in saving the school that was begun by them about 90 years ago.

Clearly, the culprit here is none other than the education ministry. It failed miserably to live up to its earlier promise to buy the land from the private owner.

In fact, it was the ministry that built the school after it was relocated from the original site. I don’t understand why there was no decision to purchase the land from the owner, something that had been previously promised.

The ministry had also not made any representation to the state government all these years to acquire the land. Acquiring land for the establishment of schools in the country is something that is normal.

If the ministry had requested, the Penang state government would have acquired the land for the school. All these years have been wasted by the officials of the education ministry.

Now, out of the blue, a decision has been taken to close down the school. As the person in charge of educational matters in Penang, I simply don’t understand the attitude of the education ministry.

Why is the school being closed down? Is it because the private owner wants the land back? Or is it because it is a missionary school that does not fit well with the attitude of government officials?

Very soon, I will be having a meeting with the relevant parties, including a society that is keen on saving the school. I will insist that the school must be saved.

It is like other missionary schools in the country that have provided excellent and quality education to generations of students.

The idea is to build more schools and certainly not to reduce them on the basis of indefensible reasons.

P Ramasamy is a deputy chief minister of Penang.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.