MIC Youth to hold Expo Jimat

THE MIC Youth is organising a three-day Expo Jimat with great discounts starting today until Sunday at the Mid-Valley Mega Mall.

The party’s Youth leader T. Mohan said the most attractive offer would be the discounts given by the Police for those coming to settle their summonses.

There will be value deals and savings for fuel savers, NGV, electricity savings bulbs, financial products, food, value holiday packages and other government services,” said Mohan.

“The Youth and Sports Ministry will showcase their Rakan Muda and encourage youths to take part in other youth programmes.

“The Langkawi Development Authority (LADA) will promote tourism in Langkawi and Lembaga Koko Malaysia will promote Malaysian chocolates and offer them at discounted prices,” he added.

More than 60 exhibitors will be setting up booths and offering great discounts.

“This is a good chance for consumers to make prudent choices,” said Mohan.

“The price of goods and services have increased and this is a good chance for them to take advantage of the offers,” he added.

For more information, call Ari at 013-349 6087.

program penjagaan mata untuk pelajar-pelajar Sekolah Tamil

England Optical Group (M) Sdn Bhd akan mengadakan satu program penjagaan mata untuk pelajar-pelajar Sekolah Tamil di seluruh Malaysia dengan kerjasama Pergerakan Pemuda MIC Kebangsaan. England Optical Group (M) Sdn Bhd ingin menawarkan pakej RM50 bagi prekripsi rabun dekat dan rabun jauh dengan cermin mata biasa termasuk bingkai cermin mata. Harga pasaran bagi pakej ini ialah RM250. Pemuda MIC akan membayar bayaran untuk cermin mata jika murid berkenaan datang daripada keluarga yang miskin.

Selain dari itu, England Optical Group (M) Sdn Bhd akan mengadakan pemeriksaan mata secara berkomputer yang percuma, pencucian mata secara ultra sonic dan pembetulan bingkai cermin mata kepada pelajar-pelajar sekolah Tamil. Program ini akan diadakan untuk 1 tahun di seluruh negara.

Berikutan program ini, satu program perjanjian memorandum persefahaman ditandatangani oleh Dato’ Dr Chin See Keat dan Y.Berusaha En. T.Mohan di Dewan Nethaji Menara Manickavasagam dan disaksikan oleh Yang Berbahagia Dato Seri S.Samy Vellu, Presiden MIC Kebangsaan.

Program ini dihadiri oleh lebih 200 pelajar sekolah Tamil dari kebanyakan sekolah disekitar Wilayah Persekutuan dan Selangor.

Ministry urged to help in training more teachers

STEPS are being taken to overcome the shortage of trained teachers in 523 Tamil schools, reported Malaysia Nanban.

Human Resources Minister and MIC secretary-general Datuk Dr S. Subramaniam said MIC would seek the cooperation of the Education Ministry to ensure that the 1,400 temporary teachers who are currently teaching in Tamil schools across the nation would be given the opportunity to pursue the teacher’s training course during the holidays within the next four years.

He said the Education Ministry had previously approved 100 places in the course for such teachers during the holidays, but at the request of MIC, had doubled the number of places to 200.

He said, however, that MIC found this number to be insufficient and had urged the ministry to allocate at least 300 places each year for temporary teachers from Tamil schools.

He was speaking to reporters after launching Canteen Day at the Meru Tamil School.

He said MIC was also in the midst of identifying problems faced by partly-aided schools and was taking the necessary action to solve these issues so that they could be converted to fully-aided schools.

Putera MIC calls for donations from the public

THE Putera MIC has launched a book donation drive campaign to upgrade the libraries in Tamil schools nationwide.

“We aim to collect 5,000 books and distribute them to at least one Tamil school in each state,” said the Putera MIC national coordinator P. Kamalanathan.

The campaign will run till the end of this year and the books will be delivered to the respective schools by the beginning of next year.

He said there was a serious need for good books in Tamil schools.

“We want to help within our means. Since we can’t afford to give them tables and chairs, we are trying our best to help in our own way,” he said.

According to Kamalanathan, eligible schools who request for the book aid will be given priority.

“We will also be visiting the schools to ensure that they have valid reasons to accept the book aid,” he added.

He urged the public to donate unused school books and other relevant reading materials like encylopaedias, dictionaries or even religious or language-based books.

“For those who have Mandarin books or Islamic religious books, you can donate it as well and we will hand it over to Chinese or the Malay schools that need it,” Kamalanathan added.

The Putera MIC website has details of drop off zones around the country. However if the donors have difficulty bringing the books to the zones, Putera MIC members are willing to pick them up.

For more information log on to www.puteramic.net or call the project director, M. Thanasekaran at 012480 1980 or Putera MIC information chief, A. Premnath at 017-3330535.

Make sure exams don’t clash with Deepavali, schools told

KUALA LUMPUR: Schools have been advised to ensure that their year-end examinations do not clash with Deepavali, which falls on Oct 27.

Education director-general Datuk Alimuddin Mohd Dom said the school authorities should take into consideration the feelings of Hindus before setting the exam dates.

“School heads should look into ways to avoid a clash of the exams and the (Deepavali) celebration. The best is to start the exams a week after Deepavali.

“It is the schools’ internal matter and not a big issue. The respective school heads can move the year-end exams to at least a week after Deepavali,” Alimuddin said.

He was asked to comment on a statement by MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu, who had asked the Education Ministry to ensure that the exams did not clash with Deepavali.

Alimuddin said both the PMR and SPM exams would not clash with Deepavali, which falls on a Monday.

“The PMR ends on Oct 17 whereas SPM starts on Nov 5, and they do not coincide with the festival,” he said.

Alimuddin also said he had a call yesterday from Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Senator T. Murugiah on the same matter. - Bernama