Education Ministry denies withdrawing consent for additional Deepavali holidays

KUALA LUMPUR: The Education Ministry (KPM) stressed that it had never issued any circular to withdraw approval for additional holidays such as for Deepavali to secondary schools which requested for it.
KPM, in a statement today, clarified that the power to approve event holidays or replacement holidays was under the jurisdiction of the State Registrar, namely, State Education Department (JPN) director and only the JPN director could approve additional holidays.
''The decision is subject to the prerogative of the JPN director in terms of student enrolments and teachers who will be celebrating Deepavali,'' said the statement to comment on a Malaysia Nanban report on additional holidays in conjunction with Deepavali, on Tuesday.
The statement said, if the school's event holidays had been exhausted, and it still wanted additional holidays, the school could apply to seek replacement holidays
''As such, schools with many Indian students can apply for additional holidays from their respective JPN directors,'' said the statement.
According to the statement, for schools in the Gombak area in Selangor as reported by the newspaper, the Selangor JPN director had given his assurance to approve the application for the additional holidays sought.
In this regards, the schools in question must communicate with the office of the Selangor JPN director today.