Twenty five students from SRJK (C) Damansara visited the Prime Minister's Office in Putrajaya this afternoon and presented a memorandum urging the government to allow their school to move back in to its former premises.

Committee chairperson Yong Yoke Sung, who led the students, said such a move by the authorities would be in line with the policy of the coming 9th Malaysia Plan which aimed to promote 'development with a human touch'.

"We are prepared for development. But we also want our school back," said Yong, whose four children were once enrolled in the school. "We are not fighting the government. We are just struggling for what is right, our children's education." he added

Press Secretary to the Prime Minister Teoh Ai Hua received the memorandum from Yong who represented the Damansara Save Our School (SOS) committee.

Among others, the SOS memorandum stressed the need for community education needs to be respected and that the reopening of the Damansara primary school in Section 17A would help meet the shortage of vernacular schools in Petaling Jaya.

It would also be a cost-effective solution in that a new school building and related infrastructure need not be provided or built again, said the memo.

Temple grounds

The SRJK (C) Damansara was closed down by the Education Ministry in January 2001 with the opening of a new building in Tropicana about four kilometres away.

However, 49 students have refused to move to the new premises and have continued their education air-conditioned containers situated on the premises of a Chinese temple near the old school.

Since then, the SOS Damansara committee, representing the parents of the students, has been fighting to have the old school premises re-opened.

The parents claim that the ministry had promised to maintain the school at the old premises in addition to the new one at Tropicana.

SOS Damansara also sought the help of the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) early last year to revive their old premises.

They claimed that the students' human rights had been violated when the government encroached into the original premises and stored 50 boxes of documents in the classrooms, effectively turning the controversial school into a warehouse.