The Gua Musang District Education Office (PPDGM) has confirmed that parents of the missing SK Tohoi pupils have been sent notices of absence by the boarding school.

However, PPDGM has since sent a second letter, dated Sept 5, to clarify matters with the parents as a result of ‘confusion’ caused by the first letter from the school that was dated Sept 2.

“The purpose of the (first) letter was to inform and invite the parents concerned to come to school and have a discussion with the school about their children’s situation.

“The PPDGM would also like to stress that the letter is only part of normal procedure and notification, and the school has no intention to upset the parents, much less to threaten them and expel their children from school,” district education officer Muhammad Zahari Othman told Malaysiakini in a letter yesterday.

Muhammad said the Kelantan Department of Education and the Ministry of Education have also been given an explanation on the issue.

On Friday last week, theSun reported that the parents of the missing children were crying foul over the Sept 2 letter, which supposedly told the parents that they were to bring their missing children back to school within 31 days, or the pupils would face expulsion.

“This is an outrage. Our children went missing from the school and now we get this?” asked Midah Angah, the mother of two of the missing children, according to the theSun report.

“How can we bring back our children when they got lost on school grounds and we don't know where they are.

“Everyone knows the children are missing. How can the school authorities send such a letter to us knowing fully well that there is a search party out there looking for them,” Midah is quoted as saying.

The seven children aged between seven and 12 years old have been missing from boarding school grounds since Aug 23, after they had supposedly fled into the jungle out of fear of punishment for swimming in a river without permission.

They have yet to be found, despite an ongoing multi-agency search operation involving hundreds of personnel.

Deputy Education Minister P Kamalanathan had reportedly told The Star that the letter may have been fake, and urged the parents to show the letter to the ministry so that action could be taken.

“Based on my checks with the ministry, there was no such letter issued,” Kamalanathan said in the report published last Saturday.

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