More Tamil Schools To Become Fully Aided

KUALA LUMPUR, May 27 (Bernama) -- The Education Ministry has agreed in principle to the conversion of all partially-aided Tamil schools into fully-aided schools in stages, MIC president Datuk Seri S.Samy Vellu said Tuesday.

He said the decision was reached at a meeting between him and Education Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein here Tuesday. Among those in the MIC president's delegation was Human Resource Minister Datuk Dr S. Subramaniam, who is also MIC secretary-general.

Samy Vellu said that of the total 524 Tamil schools, 322 were partially-aided and the rest fully-aided.

"Although an agreement was reached on the status of the partially-aided schools, the Education Minister said he still needed to seek the consent of the Cabinet," Samy Vellu said in a statement.

He said it had been MIC's "long-fought battle" to convert the schools into fully-aided schools "and we now can see some concrete move (by the government)".

Samy Vellu said he did not go into the details of the conversion such as the land status of the schools but only said that it would be done in stages.

"We can't expect the entire 322 (partially-aided) Tamil schools to be converted overnight. It will take some time but we are confident that eventually all the schools will be converted," he said.

The MIC president said he also raised the issue of allocations and the reconstruction of Tamil schools with Hishammuddin.

Some RM40 million was allocated by the government to rebuild a number of schools.

-- BERNAMA