BUTTERWORTH – The task force attempting to keep the historic SK Assumption school here going has expressed disappointment with the Education Ministry’s (MoE) announcement that the 89-year-old institution will be closed down.
Save Assumption School spokesman Vernon Fernandez said the fight is not yet over and it will do its best to seek an extension for the school until March next year.
He said the decision to close the school without consulting its stakeholders reflects on the ministry’s high-handedness.
“Even the landowner was open and willing to discuss postponing the school closure with the ministry. However, the decision to close down the historic school was made hastily by the ministry without discussions with stakeholders,” he said in a statement.
“The fight is not yet over and we will use the next two weeks to do our best to seek an extension till March 2023. This is to facilitate a better transition for the students and also with the hope of seeking an amicable solution for the purchase of the private land the school sits on,” he said.
Fernandez said an online petition at Change.org has garnered more than 10,000 supporters of the task force’s fight to save the school.
“We hope the Assumption school will be able to continue to serve as an education centre for our children as it has been doing for the past 89 years.
“The Save Assumption School joint task force remains committed to ensure that the well-being and welfare of the students remain the top priority.
“It will also seek solutions that will allow them to finish their formative primary school years without any disruptions or negative experience of feeling ‘unwanted’ through any action of the Education Ministry,” Vernon added.
The ministry had yesterday confirmed its decision to end the school’s operations in Bagan Dalam, Butterworth at the end of the third term for the 2021/2022 schooling session, which falls in March.
It explained that the school’s land and buildings on it belonged to a private company, Sri Avenue Sdn Bhd.
The ministry said the company had notified, in a letter dated November 3, 2021, that it had received offers from developers for the land and school blocks.
It also pointed out that enrolment at the school had been dwindling, with only 53 students registered there at present.
The missionary school was originally located on Jalan Assumption, but the land was sold off by the Penang Catholic Diocese some 25 years ago. The school had to then be relocated several hundred metres away.
The ministry has proposed to the parents of the pupils to have their children transferred to nearby schools, including SK Kuala Perai, SK Sungai Nyior, SK St Mark in Butterworth, SK St Mark in Prai, and SK Khir Johari.
The school’s 15 teachers and two staff members will be transferred to the nearby schools.
On January 8, The Vibes reported that SK Assumption is to cease operations from February 28.
It was reported that the Education Ministry decided to close the school as the private landowner is seeking the return of the land as soon as possible.
This was confirmed by parent-teacher association chairman Mohd Aminuddin Baqy Mohd Noor, who attended a meeting with Education Department deputy director Abdul Said Hussain, the school’s board of governors, and the SK Assumption Alumni Association.
He had told The Vibes that the deputy director informed them that the ministry had no choice but to vacate the school as the land belongs to a private owner and he is demanding for it to be returned as soon as possible.
Ministry should have bought the land, says DCM
Meanwhile, Penang Deputy Chief Minister II P. Ramasamy said the problem of the school’s closure would not have cropped up if the ministry had purchased the land as it had promised to the owner.
He said that the landowner is not arrogant and is willing to listen to offers to acquire the land for educational purposes.
“The school was relocated to the present spot in 2008 with the promise the ministry would purchase the land from the owner,” he said in a Facebook post.
“But this never happened, to the dismay of the owner. I really don’t know whether the ministry had any genuine plans to purchase the land, or alternatively, to let the school die a slow death.”
Ramasamy questioned why the ministry defaulted on the promise.
“Maybe the ministry did not have the budget, maybe there was no real intention to save the school, or maybe because it is a missionary school.”
He added however that it is strange for the school to still be termed as a “missionary school” when it was abandoned by a Christian mission with the sale of the school land. – The Vibes, January 25, 2022
