SMK Convent Bukit Nanas (CBN) is the latest school not to have its lease renewed, said the Federation of Christian Mission Schools in Malaysia (FCMSM), which insisted the 122-year-old institution should not be taken over by the government.

FCMSM deputy general-secretary Angeline Lazaroo told The Malaysian Insight in the last 10 years, at least five mission schools have had no choice but to become government schools after the respective state governments did not renew their land lease.

“The main reason was because the land lease was not renewed by the state governments, and was taken over by the relevant authorities. There were no other issues, ” Lazaroo said.

The five schools that were transformed into government schools were SK Convent Jalan Peel, SMK Convent Jalan Peel, SK (L) Methodist, Jalan Hang Jebat in Kuala Lumpur, SK Methodist, Parit Buntar in Perak and SMK Methodist, Raub in Pahang.

Lazaroo said there are 424 mission schools in Malaysia.

Yesterday, Federal Territories Land and Mines Office director Muhammad Yasir Yahya told The Star the land would revert to the government but said the school will not be demolished for any development.

This, he said, would allow the school to be gazetted as a fully government-aided educational institution.

“It (CBN) will lose its ethos which are the characteristics and traditions of a mission school,” said Lazaroo.

“It (CBN) has had a long tradition of moulding young women,” she said of the all girls’ schools founded by the Sisters of the Holy Infant Jesus, a Roman Catholic order in France.

The land office’s reason also appears to have not been conveyed to the school from the outset, as its governing board, the Lady Superior of the Society of St Maur, has applied for leave for a judicial review to challenge the government’s decision not to extend the school’s land lease.

The suit was filed after they were informed by the Land Office in December 2020 that the lease would not be extended after its expiry on September 6 this year.

Lazaroo said that CBN’s emphasis is on holistic education - academic excellence, co-curriculum participation and character formation.

Even though many mission schools today have lost much of their religious heritage, she said they still had a “ripple effect” of positive influences in generations of thousands of students who received a mission school education.

Parent Action Group for Education Malaysia (Page) chairman Noor Azimah Abdul Rahim has also questioned the Education Ministry’s silence on the matter.

“The Education Ministry has been unusually quiet on this issue.

“While the Land and Mines director has clearly explained its position on this matter, the future funding of the school does not fall within its jurisdiction,” she said.

Azimah said that the Education Ministry needs to come out and explain the situation, not just for CBN but for its policy on all mission schools.

“There should already be a policy in place. It is merely a matter of making it public.

“The Education Ministry has probably made a decision on this matter. So, they should quickly release a statement.”

Further delays will tarnish the image of the ministry, Azimah added.

The land office’s statement on the matter has also raised more questions on how it came to its decision, as Federal Territories Minister Annuar Musa said he was never told of the matter despite the school being located in Kuala Lumpur.

He said he wanted to meet with the CBN Sisters to help resolve the issue, and believed the school should remain untouched. – April 21, 2021.