The SRJK(T) Ladang Segamat school premises located in the Segamat district is 70 years old and yet it is still left in dire state for many years. The estate owner, IOI Plantation Bhd had allocated 5-acres of land for this Tamil School to be relocated with a new premise about 10 years ago.

But the Segamat district education department failed to take any steps to relocate this dilapidated school. The Segamat education department ignored this run-down Tamil school despite the fact that the Deputy Education Minister is from MIC. Why was the land given by IOI Bhd not used to construct new premises for the school? Only the Johore State MIC and Segamat education department has the answer, if any at all.

This estate Tamil school enrolment fell to 23 students about two years ago but has increased its numbers to 40 students. In the last UPSR 2017 examination, SRJK(T) Ladang Segamat scored 100% passes and because of this, more students are enrolling in the school. The school’s achievements speak volumes for its reputation as a creditable learning center.  This small estate school has even won national and international awards it is heartening to see another high achieving Tamil school come up.

Students from town area are coming to this estate school because of its improved performance. But the decayed and dilapidated school building, that has seen better times in the 70-years of its existence, is prompting parents to pull out their children and place them in the nearby national type schools.

The MIC deputy minister for education claimed in the Star newspaper on 20/8/2017 that from 2009, Tamil primary schools have received a total of over RM800 million for maintenance, new buildings, and infrastructure improvements. The same deputy minister now says that this school will be rebuilt from the 2018 allocations. He also claimed that the ministry had allocated MR100,000 in 2017 to renovate the premises. But Segamat education department spent RM80000 for a new bare and empty overhead shed. Anyone with common sense can see that the value of this shed cannot be more than RM10,000. The Deputy Education minister must investigate how such a bare overhead shed was billed for RM80,000. The school premises cannot be renovated under its present condition. It will simply collapse.

The Ministry of Education must stop this attitude of uncaring towards Tamil Schools. Tamil schools have to appeal many times before they can get allocations from education departments unlike national type Malay schools who receive more than enough allocations. The PIBG support is limited because of the lower income level of these people.

The MIC, instead of pressing the education ministry to replace the old premises with new building in the estate allocated land, has become the defender of education department’s inaction and intimidation. SRJK(T) Ladang Segamat is a high achieving school and needs to be supported with new classroom buildings, library, computer lab and even a science lab. Without proper education, the Indian community and Indian children in Ladang Segamat and its neighborhood, face a bleak future. It is their hope that some well-placed people in this area will come forward to help the 70-year-old this SRJK(T) Ladang Segamat to become a higher achieving center.