Teo: We’ll tackle Tamil school issues one by one’

KULAI: The Education Ministry will take one step at a time to solve issues faced by the 16 Tamil schools nationwide that have not opened in time for the new school term that started two weeks ago.

Deputy Education Minister Teo Nie Ching said that the ministry needed to take a case-by-case approach because each of the affected schools have different reasons for not being awarded a Certificate of Fitness (CF).

“We are looking at it one by one and right now we will first identify why these schools have not received the CF despite their construction having been completed.

“There is a school in Kulai here that has yet to receive its CF because it failed to fulfil the requirements set by the Kulai Municipal Council (MPKu) and we are working with the council to find out how the issue can be resolved,” she added.

Teo said this after launching the Kulai District Education and Innovation Award ceremony here on Sunday.

“We need to sit down with the relevant parties, including the Public Works Department (JKR) and local councils, to look into the issues,” she added.

It was earlier reported that 16 Tamil schools nationwide, including four in Johor, have not opened despite being completed for almost two years due to various issues.

Indian Builders and Contractors Association (IBC) president V.K. Regu said that all the schools had been completed but were not handed over to the ministry as they had problems with approvals from local councils and utility connections.

In an unrelated matter, Teo said that the Zero Reject Policy implemented by the government starting this year would be beneficial in improving the education system in Malaysia.

A lot of research has proven that an inclusive style of education will benefit both students with special needs as well as normal students.

The ministry hopes to get at least 75% of special needs students into the Inclusive Education Program (PPI), she said, adding that there were about 83,598 special needs students nationwide as of October last year.

Under the Zero Reject Policy, state education departments and district education offices must approve the applications from all special needs students and also ensure that schools are able to cater to their basic needs.