About 30 people with brooms and dustpans today cleaned the pavements and roads around the controversial SJK (C) Damansara school after being denied entry into the school by a lone police officer guarding the school.

Tommy Chin, head of the school's Old Boys' Association, led the group of Sunday cleaners, comprising mostly villagers.

Chin said that the volunteers' application for permission to enter the school to hold a " gotong-royong " was submitted late last week and that they were hoping the police would approve their request.

After waiting for about an hour, Chin tried to negotiate with the police guard to allow them to enter the school compound. However the police officer, who was reading newspapers, refused to budge.

Seeing that there was nothing much that the group could do, they started sweeping the roads and pavements surrounding the school.

Conducive place for students

Despite a January directive from the Education Ministry for 1,400 students of the 70-year-old school to move to nearby SJK (C) Puay Chai (II) temporarily until the new school in Tropicana is ready, some 60 parents were adamant in protesting the move.

Their children have been continuing lessons in makeshift classes at the temple grounds nearby after the Damansara school was sealed off by the ministry.

The old school has not been maintained since its was cordoned off three months ago.

According to action committee chairperson Ronnie Liu, the offer to clean up the school was to ensure it remained a conducive place for students to study.

"We do not want to the school to be in shambles and not maintained, [as such conditions] will be used as an excuse by those who say that SJK Damansara is not conducive for studying," Liu told malaysiakini on Thursday.

He said that the unkept condition of the school was discovered when residents of Damansara New Village, where the school is located, were allowed in to clean the compound last weekend.

"They could only clean up a few places, but even so, much rubbish was collected," said Liu.