Dr Maszlee Malik
SIMPANG RENGGAM: A one year grace period will be given to all quarters before the ruling of black school shoes is implemented in all government schools.
Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik said the grace period was given for everyone to adjust to the new ruling and not to burden the parents unnecessarily.
He said that during this period, there would be no disciplinary action taken against students who fail to wear black school shoes.
“Next year, parents who have bought white shoes for their children, would be allowed to wear them.
“We understand that changes could not be done by force and we try to be understanding so that everyone, especially parents and industry players, are happy. We will not do ‘hard landing’ but ‘soft landing’ because we do not want anybody to feel burdened and pressured,” he said.
He said this in response to the concerns from some quarters including shoe shop owners on the implementation of the directive.
Maszlee spoke to the press after officiating the Simpang Renggam parliamentary office and meeting the government agencies at the office here yesterday.
Last Thursday, Maszlee, who is also Simpang Renggam MP, announced that students nationwide would be required to wear black school shoes starting from next year’s school session.
The decision was made after taking into account requests from parents to the Ministry of Education since he became the minister.
On another issue, Maszlee called on the Ministry of Housing and Local Government (KPKT) to consider continuing the construction of a second fire station in Simpang Renggam, which had stopped earlier.
“The one and only fire station in Simpang Renggam which mainly helped in accident cases is in the city. As the location is far from the highway, they frequently arrive at the scene much later.
“However, the Simpang Renggam council President informed us that we have land allocated for the construction of a fire station. even the construction has been planned but it was stopped, so we appeal to the KPKT to hasten the reconstruction of the fire station in Simpang Renggam,” he said. — Bernama