The Avoidable Tragedy

How do you feel when your brother or sister died at such a young age? How do you feel when their death occurred due to others negligence?

The tragedy at Sekolah Kebangsaan Kuala Dipang, Kampar was a tragic accident. The primary students attended a 1 Malaysia camping organized by the Pejabat Pendidikan Daerah Kinta Selatan. A wonderful and motivational event turned into a chaos. At 10.40pm on the 26th October 2009, 22 students fell when a bridge collapsed. The young students were between life and death and they had to hold to the bridge cable for their survival. A brave guards and a teacher saved the 19 of the students. Unfortunately, 3 of them could not be saved.

An angry parents blame the teachers for lack of supervision. And the teachers defend themselves by pointing the finger to the contractor who build the bridge. After initial investigation the police found that the bridge was not built according to it's specification.

Who should bear the responsibility? The Education Department, the teachers or the contractor?
No matter who responsible for it, few life were taken and if there was a high standard of supervision including an inspection of the newly built bridge, this tragedy will never be on the news headlines.

SMIOB wish condolences to the family of N. Dina Dewe Nathan 11, Diryasree Vasudevan 12 and Davadharshini Maheswaran 11.

Obituary-Jagendran A/L Ratnam{25th Nov 1987-25th Oct 2009}

Jagendran second from left(in white dress)

Mr. Jagendran A/L Ratnam, an old boy from the batch of 2004 passed away on last Sunday, 25th October 2009.

He was a student from 5V1 class and a former Librarian.

SMIOB wish our condolences to the family of the deceased. May his soul rest in peace.

Happy Diwali

SMIOB would like to wish Happy Diwali to all our Hindu friends, teachers and students of SMI. May this year's Diwali brings prosperous and happiness.

1-Toilet Policy???

The issues here:

1. Can "the oneness" be achieved in the smelly and filthy toilet?

2. Are the students and teachers always in the toilet at the same time and same place?

3. How long teachers and students will be in the toilet to achieve this oneness policy?

4. Are there any places apart from the toilet that this policy can be implemented?

5.Will there be a situation where the students can hear the their teachers flush their toilet?

6. Will the students believe that they are on par with academicians when sharing toilet with their teachers?

So guys....do you think this ONE TOILET policy suits with SMI?

(The Star) - The state government will introduce a “1Toilet” policy in a move to liberalise education, where teachers – and even principals – will soon have to share toilets with their students.

State Education, Higher Learning, Human Resource, Science and Technology Committee chairman Ahmad Razif Abd Rahman said the policy was mooted in line with the 1Malaysia concept, and teachers and students could have a feeling of “oneness”.

“We want students to have a sense of belonging that we believe would inspire them to excel further in their education.

“When students share the toilets with the teacher, they (students) will believe that they are on par with academicians and this automatically invokes a sense of being important to an organisation, which, in this case, is the school,” he said here yesterday.

“We are not compelling the school authorities to apply the policy. It is their prerogative,” said Ahmad Razif.

“So far, we have one school in Hulu Terengganu that has implemented the policy a few days ago. It has received positive feedback from the school management although it is still premature for us to evaluate its efficiency,” he said.

Ahmad Razif said that under the policy, teachers and students would also be encouraged to sit within a common space at school canteens during recess.

“This means that teachers and students will mingle freely during recess,” he said.

Ahmad Razif said the policy had initially been proposed by Mentri Besar Datuk Ahmad Said earlier this year but that it took some time for it to be properly drafted.

On another matter, Ahmad Razif said the state government would continue to send students to pursue medicine and dentistry in recognised universities in Indonesia.

“We are looking into the option of sending our students to universities in areas classified as non-earthquake prone areas in Indonesia,” he said.

Ahmad Razif said the state government was also in the midst of discussions with officials from University Padjadjaran of Bandung on the possibility of sending Terengganu students for medical courses there.

He said other countries that the state government was planning to send their medical undergraduates next year were Poland and Russia.