The yet-to-be registered Parti Reformasi Insan Malaysia (Prim) has reiterated its call to the government to grant full aid to all Tamil schools in the country.

Its pro tem secretary-general P Uthayakumar said today that since the law has made it compulsory for all school-aged children to attend primary school and since it is deemed a crime for parents not to send their children to school, he urged the authorities to aid the Indian community in their quest for education.

"The Education Act has been amended to incorporate jail sentences for parents who fail to send their children to primary school. Therefore, the government should help the poorer Indian community by making Tamil schools fully aided immediately," he said.

Uthayakumar added that Tamil schools were badly in need of financial aid and cited a number of reports revealing appalling conditions of these vernacular institutions.

On Wednesday, 10 Tamil schools in Negri Sembilan were declared unsafe by the Public Works Department (PWD) while the Education Ministry revealed that 61 other schools in the state also faced major shortcomings.

Uthayakumar also took the government to task for its lack of 'political will' in solving the problems faced by Tamil schools nationwide.

"The government's excuse in not fully aiding all Tamil schools is that most of these schools are on private land especially in estates. There is a way around this as all the government has to do is to acquire the land (where the schools are located) and compensate the owners," he said.

Letter to PM

In a letter to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Education Minister Hishamuddin Hussein, Prim highlighted their concern for the safety of Tamil school students who "endanger their lives" when attending classes in schools which are in a deplorable state.

It said that besides the 'unsafe' schools in Negri Sembilan, two other schools - SRJK (T) Tun Sambanthan and SRJK (T) Sungai Para in Kedah - were reported in the media to have been built before the Japanese occupation and declared unsafe by the PWD in August.

"This is just the tip of the iceberg and there are many other Tamil schools in a deplorable state. This however does not happen to any other school in the country be it national, Chinese (which has a strong business community backing), religious or others.

"Why the discrimination when it comes to even the basic education of the poor, innocent and unassuming primary school pupils (in Tamil schools)," the party protested.

Prim also scoffed at the appointment of two Indian community government representatives, Works Minister S Samy Vellu and the parliamentary secretary to the Ministry of Education P Komala Devi (pic left), saying that they seem to be powerless in tackling the problem of Tamil schools.

"It is obvious that they cannot do anything about this pathetic state of affairs," it asserted.

In protecting the " interest of the poor, underprivileged and marginalised Indian Malaysian community", the party also urged the cabinet not to "further drag their feet but to make a final decision (on fully aiding all Tamil schools) at its next meeting on Oct 27".

There are 376 partially-aided Tamil schools nationwide.