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Bagan Dalam rep asks if SK Assumption closed due to missionary roots

Satees said SK Assumption is a self-sustaining outfit and a part of Malaysia’s heritage that should be preserved. — Picture by Sayuti Zainudin
Satees said SK Assumption is a self-sustaining outfit and a part of Malaysia’s heritage that should be preserved. — Picture by Sayuti Zainudin

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 10 — Bagan Dalam assemblyman Satees Muniandy has asked the Penang Education Department to explain why Sekolah Kebangsaan Assumption in Butterworth was being closed.

He said the department's sudden decision was shocking as there was no consultation with stakeholders including the state government, especially as it previously suggested the school would not be closed for at least several more years.

Sarees said he also had to learn of the closure through news reports despite being the elected representative of the constituency in which the school resided.

“Considering the development of the issue, and lacklustre attitude of Education Department officials in this matter, I couldn’t help myself but to wonder, if SK Assumption is being victimised for its missionary root.

“Obviously, the Education Ministry having a policy of not heeding such partially aided schools that are facing risk of closure is due to many factors.

“Schools on private land and lack of students are convenient excuses to let these schools to dwindle in numbers. This is the case of vernacular and missionary schools in this country; it’s an open secret,” he said in a statement today.

He also alleged that some administrators in charge of vernacular and missionary schools did not contribute to saving SK Assumption from facing imminent closure.

“In the case of SK Assumption, the efforts initiated last year, to form a School Management Board became futile, due to the school administration’s reluctance to escalate the application form to the state Education Department, citing the reason ’the school is going to be closed down anyway’,” he added.

Satees said that while SK Assumption was neither a fully-aided government school nor one operated by the Christian Missionary, it was a self-sustaining outfit and a part of Malaysia’s heritage that should be preserved.

“I will be seeking the help of the state government to safeguard the near-century old legacy of Butterworth Assumption School.

“The Penang state government has been consistently lending strong support for vernacular and missionary schools in the state.”

Yesterday, news site Free Malaysia Today reported that Penang officials are slated to convene a meeting in an effort to save Sekolah Kebangsaan Assumption which is set to be permanently closed on February 28 after some 89 years.

Satees reportedly said that the meeting would involve Education Department officials, school administrators, and the parent-teacher association and would be chaired by Penang Deputy Chief Minister II P. Ramasamy who is also the state executive councillor for education.

SK Assumption was reported to have been founded in 1933 by the La Salle Brothers, an order of the Catholic church. The church relinquished all rights when the school was relocated in 2008.

News of SK Assumption’s closure came as schools nationwide reopened classrooms recently for the delayed third-term of the 2021 school year.

Its alumni and the parent-teacher association had formed a joint task force called Save Assumption School joint task force.

The school, currently located at Kampung Ujung Batu near the Perai river, has faced problems for the past 26 years after the original site of the school in Jalan Assumption was sold to property developers in 1995.

Students used classrooms at Sekolah Kebangsaan Jalan Sungai Nyiur for 13 years until the current building was constructed on the present site in 2008.


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