Slim River Tamil school parents fear for their children’s safety

Parents of SRJK (T) Slim River school students are incredibly dissapointed by authorities lack of urgency to fix the schools termite problem that had been reported in 2011.

The Malaysia Times (TMT) today spoke to some of the concern parents outside the school, where they voiced their concern over their children’s safety.

Jayshree, 40, said that it has been five years since a complaint was made and four years since the Public Works Department (JKR) has reported that the building is not safe to be used.

“My son is now nine years old and still in danger, how long do they expect us to sit and wait,” Jayshree told TMT.

Meanwhile, Pooveneswary, 33, vented: “Are they waiting for something bad to happen to one of the children before they start doing their job.”

She said that even though the kindergarten children have been moved to the library, everyone still has to use the canteen, so they are all still in danger.

Arulmany, 38, said that the school had made the reports initially but after a couple of years had become less aggressive to get the building rebuilt.

S. Jeevaratnam said that he has personally funded the school as well to fix their minor things, but said that as this is a government building it can’t be demolished and rebuilt by just anyone.

“It’s worrying when things are out of your hands and your child’s safety is corn , it is very worrying,” he said.

“I have a cousin whom studied in the school almost 16 years ago and she said that the canteen is the same since she started studying,” said Arulmany.

The kindergarten and canteen building in the school has been labeled as unfit as it is infested by termites by the Public Works Department (JKR) in 2012,and that the building should be demolished.

200 student and 35 kindergarten students and several other teachers and staff currently accommodate the school.