School honours headmaster with Gopal Sri Ram award

Compiled by GERARD GIMINO, C, ARUNO and R. ARAVINTHAN

SJK(T) Ladang Kerling headmaster C. Kumar has been honoured with a Gopal Sri Ram Award by the school board, Malaysia Nanban reported.

Board chairman Kumaran Marimuthu said they initiated the award to honour the late Federal Court judge and senior lawyer Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram, who passed away on Jan 29 at the age of 79.

Kumaran said not long ago, the school was facing closure threats due to low student numbers, but thanks to efforts taken by the headmaster, the number has grown to more than 100 students.

The school has also successfully implemented a traditional Gurukkulam-style hostel since 2016, which houses 20 students.

The Gurukkulam was started for students from poor families, children of single mothers and those who had dropped out due to family issues.

> Hospitals in Pakistan are running out of critical medicines such as insulin and medications for heart ailments, Malaysia Nanban reported.

The country is in the midst of an economic crunch and is facing major cash flow and foreign exchange issues.

With most of the medicines used in hospitals being imported, the country is unable to pay to procure them.

Local manufacturers are also facing difficulties increasing production due to a shortage of raw materials.

Hospitals are reportedly forced to postpone critical heart, cancer and kidney surgeries due to shortages of anaesthetics.

The situation appears to mirror the problems that Sri Lanka has been dealing with since last year.

The above articles are compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.