Peaceful gathering: Parents of students from SJK(T) Jalan Yahya Awal protesting the decision to reduce the number of DLP classes.
JOHOR BARU: Some 100 parents from SJK(T) Jalan Yahya Awal held a peaceful demonstration against the sudden drop in the number of Dual Language Programme classes at the school.
The demonstration was held on the first day of school.
A representative of the group, Captain M. Palaniandy, said parents forked out thousands of ringgit to send their children to English medium pre-schools to prepare for the DLP classes.
“We have registered our children to such schools two years ago, spending between RM10,000 and RM15,000 over the two years,” he said.
Following the protest last week, the parents met with Johor Education Department officers to submit a memo, appealing for the programme to be continued for all classes.
“The reason given by the Education Department for the change was that there aren’t enough teachers in secondary schools who could teach in English,” he said.
“However, this is not a new programme. The matter should have been taken up seriously years ago.”
Palaniandy said that of the 143 Primary One students who have registered to the school this year, 140 wanted to be in the DLP classes.
“But there are now only 35 spots available.The school had decided to have an assessment on March 22,” he said.
“This is to decide who gets to be in the DLP classes.”
“They had agreed to wait initially but we were later told that the assessment will now be conducted on March 28,” Palaniandy said, hoping that it will be postponed further until a response was given by the relevant departments.
