Compiled by C. ARUNO, FARIK ZOLKEPLI and R. ARAVINTHAN

       SJK (T) Ladang Sungai Timah, which has no pupils or teachers, has got the Indian community and Tamil educators in Teluk Intan worried, Makkal Osai reported.

       There were efforts to relocate it to a better location by the school’s former board chairman, Thangaraj Krishna, but this went nowhere after he passed away.

       The community in Teluk Intan is now hoping for serious and sustained effort by their leaders to save the school before its licence is revoked.

       A local priest is believed to have started the school with 16 pupils, who he taught in a hut, in 1937.

       The school was formally established in 1947; however, a new building in 1973 was not enough to arrest the student decline.

       The school’s fate was seemingly sealed when the boat service used by many pupils, teachers, parents and staff to cross a river to get to the school was stopped a few years ago. They were left to take a much longer route.

       The school had just seven pupils in 2019, with three advancing to secondary school last year.

       Three others transferred to other schools due to transportation problems while the last pupil left after his father got a job transfer.

       The last three teachers at the school also received transfer orders in September last year while the headmaster followed a month later.

       The guards and cleaners have continued the school’s upkeep.

       The above articles are compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.