Pupils forced to eat in shower room, Ministry to probe
T K Letchumy Tamboo
July 23, 2013 18:14 MYT
July 23, 2013 18:14 MYT
Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has initiated investigations into the shocking incident of non-Muslim pupils of a school, who were allegedly told to eat in a shower room cum changing room during recess to not offend fasting Muslims.
In a twitter posting about two hour ago, Muhyiddin, who is also the Education minister, said he had instructed the ministry’s Director General Tan Sri Abdul Ghafar Mahmud to probe the allegations.
The allegations were first spread in Facebook when disgruntled parents of Sekolah Kebangsaan Seri Pristana’s non-Muslim students, posted pictures of their children’s saddening predicament.
The pictures show several students eating and drinking in a small room, away from the eye of the public. The room has several shower stalls and the parents labelled the room as a toilet.
Apparently, the shower room is located next to the school's toilet.
As soon as the pictures went viral, Deputy Education Minister P. Kamalanathan, in a series of twitter, condemned the act, labelling it as an inappropriate move, as the school could have appointed a temporary canteen operator during Ramadhan.
Earlier, he spoke exclusively to Astro AWANI when met in Dewan Negara, stressing the same point.
Meanwhile, the Selangor State Education Department director Mahmud Karim, has vehemently denied the allegation.
In what seem like a defensive move, Mahmud said the school had arranged for a changing room for the students to eat in, instead of the toilet.
Meanwhile, raged Malaysian public took to the social media to express their anger over the incident.