The headmaster of a Sungai Buloh primary school has said that Muslim and non-Muslim students had been using the school’s changing room since March to have their meals.
The SK Seri Pristana headmaster Mohd Nasir Mohd Noor said the increased enrolment and space shortage in the canteen had prompted the decision.
He also stressed that he would never discriminate against his pupils, pointing out that the changing room was clean and that it was the closest room to the canteen.
“I did not mean any harm to the pupils,” The Star today reported him as saying. The paper reported that when it visited the school yesterday, the headmaster and the head of the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) looked distressed as officers from various government departments questioned them repeatedly on the subject, while Mohd Nasir had to answer his mobile phone every few minutes.
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He said until yesterday he had not received any complaints from parents.
The school’s PTA chairman Hussein Mohd Ariff said that the PTA members were aware of the situation as it was brought up at the AGM. He said that he was aware it was not an ideal solution, but added that the decision was not up to him.
Mohd Nasir said the canteen had been closed over the past week due to minor 'renovation'. The daily reported that Mohd Nasir said that the minor renovation, to change a glass door at the canteen, was completed over the weekend and that the canteen was to have been re-opened on Monday.
“I did not know that it was kept closed. I was away for a meeting that day,” Mohd Nasir said..
According to school officials, there are 28 non-Muslim pupils in the school.
The canteen, which is directly opposite the changing room, was re-opened to the pupils yesterday on the directive of the Education Ministry, the daily reported. - July 24, 2013.
