National schools turning into Islamic schools

I, too, send my children to a sekolah kebangsaan but I have to say that I am not really happy about my choice. In fact, I had no choice because my wife and I are from the sekolah kebangsaan background and at where we stay, we have problems educating our children in Chinese as we could not guide them since we do not know Mandarin. Tuition is hard to come by too.

Decades ago, the sekolah kebangsaan I attended did not have the reading of the doa before school starts and before school ends. These days, when they have the doa, the school prefects even ask my children to lift up their hands like the Muslims do.

My children told me about it and I went to school to watch and waited till the doa was over. When they see that I am around, they do not dare to do direct my children. Even now, off and on, I will drop in at the school to check on my children. I will also regularly ask them if any of the teachers are trying to talk to them about religion.

When my first child was in Standard One, a few of the teachers even asked my child to study Bahasa Arab without my permission. I had to go to the school and tell the teachers that I didn’t want my children stuyding the Arab language. They tried to bluff me by saying that it was harmless, but I am not stupid.

I know from my schooldays that Bahasa Arab is related to the study of Islam and so unknown to me, they would be able to brainwash my children. As it is , some of the teachers and students are now telling my children how good Islam is and that all other religions are false. This shouldn't be the case in schools.

One of my sons, who is now in Form Two, was given an article by one of his teachers to read. It is about a Chinese man who converted to Islam. My son did not want to read it and the teacher is now turning a cold shoulder towards him.

I specifically told my son that should any teacher want him to read such articles, they should get my permission first.

This making of the sekolah kebangsaan into Islamic schools is one of the main factors why many non-Malays do not want to send their children there - even if it is the best school in the area.

Joe Chia
Malaysiakini