SUNGAI PETANI: Sungai Petani member of Parliament Dr Taufiq Johari will consult all stakeholders over the objection against the plan to convert SMK Khir Johari here into a Form Six College.
Dr Taufiq said he will be meeting with the Kuala Muda district education office (PPD) and the state education department (JPN) to get a clearer picture on the issue.
"Actually I have met with the school's principal and I will be meeting up with the PPD and JPN to get into the bottom of the issue.
"However, I was made to understand the decision was reached in 2021. It was a collective decision by the school's PTA (Parent-Teacher Association), PPD and JPN.
"I was told that there was no objection back then," he told reporters at the Sungai Petani MP Aidilfitri open house yesterday.
Dr Taufiq, who is also the state PKR Youth chief added that he is open to any feedback from all stakeholders including students, parents and teachers.
"We are open to all views, including in the form of a petition but we will have to review the meetings record which had been agreed back then.
"Whatever decision to be made, it has to be a holistic one and fair to all parties concerned," he said.
Dr Taufiq was responding to an online petition on Change.Org that was initiated by the school's alumni members last month.
According to the petitioner, he is objecting the move to convert the school which currently caters to some 1,500 students from Form 1 to Form Five, into a Form Six College for Kuala Muda district.
He said SMK Khir Johari, established since 1912, is a symbol of a struggle by the local ancestors to establish a Malay-language medium school that was at par with the English-based schools prior to the country's independence.
As of today, over 1,000 people have signed to support the petition which supported a call to the Education Ministry to preserve the school as a daily national school that caters for local students in the area.
They argued that the move would affect students and parents in the surrounding area as the students would have to be relocated to other secondary schools.