KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 24 — The Education Ministry has deemed a move by a primary school in Setapak to split Muslim and non-Muslim pupils into different classes as “unjustifiable and unacceptable”.
Deputy Education Minister P. Kamalanathan said: “This is not allowed. This should never happen.”
The school’s senior assistant said they planned to enforce the move next year to all classes and standards as they suffered a shortage of teachers teaching Moral studies and Mandarin.
Kamalanathan and the school were responding to Malay Mail following a complaint by a 38-year-old mother that her son, aged 10, will be placed in the second class next year despite obtaining top grades. The first class is dedicated to Muslim students to facilitate the teaching of Islamic studies and Arabic language.
“We will investigate the claims made by the mother.”
Kamalanathan also warned school administrators not to disregard the ministry’s guidelines and urged parents to highlight such matters to the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA).
“If the problem is not solved at the district education department’s level, then the case will be presented to the state education department. I assure you most problems would be solved there,” he said.
The Hulu Selangor MP, however, admitted there was a shortage of teachers, especially when a teacher teaching an optional subject retires.
“It is a challenge finding a replacement when a teacher that specialises in Mandarin or Tamil language retires. Some of the teachers, who want to teach optional subjects like Mandarin and Tamil language, fail the tests set by the ministry and are forced to resit the exams,” he said.
“These teachers may be good in other subjects but we cannot compromise the quality of education and they should get good results when sitting for the optional papers in order for them to qualify teaching those subjects.”
The mother had alerted Malay Mail last week over the move. She was shocked to learn of her child’s predicament.
“My son scored good grades. But I was told the first class will be reserved for Muslim students while the second class is for non-Muslims who will be taking Moral studies and Mandarin,” she said.
“I want my child to interact with his friends from different races.”
The school’s senior assistant stressed the move was to better manage the timetable for Muslim and non-Muslim pupils.
“Once implemented, it will be easier to manage the students for the different subjects,” the senior assistant said.
Such a practice would also be adopted by other classes and standards, the senior assistant said.
The school stressed both the first and second classes were considered the “top class”.
“Parents should not worry about the streaming process. Although non-Muslim students are placed in the other class, they are still our top students… just like those in the first class,” it said.
Malay Mail had also highlighted last week the predicament of non-Muslim students in a primary school in Kepong who were told to attend Jawi classes due to lack of teachers.
The ministry advised the school that the non-Muslim students should not be forced to attend Jawi lessons unless a collective decision was made by the PTA.
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