School rebranding: Malacca still refining SJKC Laksamana Cheng Ho idea

The Malacca government is still refining the proposal to rebrand the name of a Chinese school to Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina (SJKC) Laksamana Cheng Ho, in collaboration with any school management board interested in the state government's initiative.

State Education, Higher Education and Religious Affairs Committee chairperson Rahmad Mariman said initially, the state Education Department held an engagement session with SJKC Jasin Lalang to express the state government’s intention to rebrand the school’s name.

However, the majority of parents and the school’s management board disagreed with the proposal.

“The latest proposal sees the Education Department holding engagement sessions with the school management board and Parent-Teacher Association committee members of SJKC Simpang Bekoh to present the same idea of rebranding the school’s name.

“The school’s board made several suggestions, including accepting the new name while retaining the original name or accepting the new name without retaining the original.

“(The latter is) on condition that a school history room be set up in the new school to store all documents related to the history of SJKC Simpang Bekoh,” he told the state assembly sitting at Seri Negeri, Malacca today.

Rahmad was replying to a question from Low Chee Leong (Harapan-Kota Laksamana) who wanted to know about the status of the proposal to rename a school to SJKC Laksamana Cheng Ho as part of efforts to strengthen Malacca-China relations that have existed for over 620 years.

He said the engagement session was held with SJKC Simpang Bekoh since the school is categorised as under-enrolled, with just two Chinese and nine Malay students, besides seven teachers.

The state government had previously expressed its intention to rebrand the name of a Chinese school to SJKC Laksamana Cheng Ho to commemorate the spirit of diplomatic ties between the state and China.

- Bernama

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