My-Daybreak.org

It’s that time of the year again in schools–year- end exams.
Year in and year out, the same problem arises out of scheduling exams
in the middle of a major festival.
Every year, Deepavali gets caught in the middle of exams and Hindu students
become the innocent ” victims” of  in-sensitive school heads.
Deepavali fails on Oct17 this year. School heads must be sensitive to students’
welfare and needs, specially in multiracial schools. This must be one of the essential
qualities of a school head.
As a teacher, I had raised this issue previously in the press. unfortunately,
nothing was done about it.
Another issue that I would like to highlight is the long break for schools
during Hari Raya and Chinese New Year.
Deepavali doesn’t seem to make the list as far as the Education Ministry is concerned.
Don’t the relevant authorities brother to think that Hindu students( as well as their parents),
teacher and their families also need to travel long distances to their hometown to
celebrate the festival with their loved ones onces a year?
Why is it due consideration is only given to one or two major festivals? What irks
me the most is that sespite the long breack, the Education director- general is urging
schools to take Sept 18as” Cuti peristiwa”. But sadly , he hasn’t issued any statements
regarding Deepavali.
I sincerely hope that the education minister and the director-general will give due
consideration to this matter.

–B.K. Ipoh ( News Straits times)