In reply to KHK's letter

, I have to admit to being slow in voicing support for SAR (religious schools) purely because of my limited knowledge of the curriculum offered by SAR. I supported the national-type Chinese school because I'm a product of it and I know for a fact that it is apolitical and non-racial despite the fact that most of the students are Chinese Malaysians.

In general, I think publicly-funded institutions should be apolitical. This includes all governmental departments, schools, colleges and universities.

If there are valid concerns that the SAR teachers are using their position to promote the political parties that they are affiliated with, the education authorities would need to investigate o­n this.

However, closing down SAR cannot be the solution. The matter has to be investigated and open hearings need to be conducted o­n order to get to the bottom of the matter.

The SAR has to remain open to students during all investigations because the government should not disturb the progress of the students. A great way for SAR to gain supporters is to open up its curriculum to the public. Anyway, I do think that closing down SAR is an irresponsible political move because there have been no complaints from parents, o­nly accusations from politicians. So in my opinion the 'concerns' themselves are invalid. And I'll support SAR if it provides quality education to our children.