LETTER | Lately, Deputy Education Minister P Kamalanathan has defended the Penang education department's transfer of SJK(T) Mak Mandin's headmaster V Tamilchelvi as a routine exercise and that it had nothing to do with the visit of Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng's visit to the school recently.

Kamalathan refuted allegations that she was transferred out of the school due to the visit by Lim, and said that since Oct 2, 2017, seven school headmasters have been transferred out of Tamil schools in Penang.

So, as far as Kamalanathan is concerned, the transfer of Tamilchelvi was a routine or procedural exercise by the education department in Penang, and it has nothing to do with politics.

Lim visited the schools a few weeks ago with some members of the Penang state government to announce financial allocation RM110,000 for the school building and kindergarten.

The headmaster had nothing to do with the visit, and she was not even present on the day. Lim was invited by the members of the board of trustees of the Mak Mandin school.

Since the school was located in his parliamentary constituency, he had every reason to make a visit to the school.

Over the last nine years or so, the Penang government has made substantial contributions to the development of Tamil schools in the state.

While Kamalanthan (photo) defended the transfer as something routine, he failed on two counts.

First, he failed to explain why Tamilchelvi was transferred twice in the space of a year or so.

Earlier, she was transferred out of SJK(T) Bukit Mertajam because I visited the school on the invitation extended by the school's parent-teacher association. I was there to ensure that the nearby construction did not affect the school.

Within a matter of few weeks, and as a result of the complaints lodged by some BN-friendly parties, she was transferred to the Mak Mandin Tamil School.

She was hardly here for a few months in this school but transferred out again because of the visit by Lim.

Second, Kamalanathan in his zeal to defend the transfer, had failed to acknowledge that Tamilchelvi was subject to "interrogation" by the officials of the state education department before she was told of her transfer.

She was queried why Lim was invited and whether she was aware of the visit. Since she was not present during the visit, and the visit was arranged by the school's board, she denied any involvement.

She was also asked why she did not direct the security personnel to lock the gate if she had known about the visit.

Since the officials were not convinced by her reply, they took the decision to teach her a "lesson" to transfer her to a school in Perai, which has a smaller enrolment of students.

This Tamil school in Perai does not have the reputation of a premier Tamil school like the one in Mak Mandin.

However, even if the transfer was routine one, it was certainly a demotion for an excellent headmaster like Tamilchelvi to be transferred from a leading Tamil school in the state to a smaller school with lesser enrolment.

Can Kamalanathan deny the above?

Does he know what actually happened before the jumping the gun to defend the transfer as a routine exercise?

This transfer exercise by the Penang's education department makes a mockery of academic excellence in the country.

P RAMASAMY is Penang Deputy Chief Minister II and Perai assemblyperson.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.