KUANTAN: To ensure that the Tami primary school in Kuantan would continue to exist, the chairman of the school’s parent-teacher association bought a van to ferry pupils to school every day for the past six years.

Janarthanan, 40, a contractor, is the chairman of the parent-teacher association of SJKT Ladang Jeram in Kuantan.

He leaves home at 5.15 a.m. to pick up 38 pupils in Kuantan and Jabor estate at the border of Terengganu to send them to the school in three trips.

Janarthanan finishes the three rounds of driving at about 7.45 a.m., and returns to the school at 12.40 p.m. to send the pupils home, also in three trips.

SJKT Ladang Jeram, a temporary school with makeshift classrooms made of cabins, is located at the entrance of Damansara Kuantan housing area.

The school has a total of 46 pupils, 10 teachers, a headmistress and an administrative assistant.

Janarthanan said the school’s location is remote and the makeshift school lacks facilities.

A group of pupils was transferred to another school several years ago.

“If the school has fewer than ten pupils, it may have to be closed.

“Set up 25 years ago, people hope to keep the school going. One of the ways is to have more pupils studying at the school,” he said.

In the past, the school paid a school bus driver RM3,000 to ferry pupils for a year. However, the school bus operator decided to quit in mid-2018.

After that, parents were required to send and fetch the own children.

“We had about 50 pupils when I just became the PTA chairman. With Datuk K. Nadeson, the chairman of the school board and the former headmaster, I discovered that the pupils’ attendance was extremely poor, as parents had to work and were unable to send their children to school.

“If the situation continued, many parents would have to transfer their children to another school.

“I decided to buy a used van for RM18,000 to offer free transport service to the pupils.

“Nadeson agreed that he would pay for the fuel cost.

“Some parents paid me some money for the service. We do not take money from students who come from poor families,” said Janarthanan.

Janarthanan plans to continue sending the pupils to school even after his own child, who is now in Year Six, goes to a secondary school.

“I will continue to offer transport service for the pupils until the makeshift school is relocated to a new site,” he said.

The school received funds from the federal government and land from the state government eight years ago for relocation.

The new school was supposed to be completed by November 2018, but as the contractor was involved in a legal suit, only earthwork has been completed.

Janarthan hopes foreign minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Abdullah, who is also MP for Indera Mahkota, and deputy education minister Datuk Dr. Mah Hang Soon could follow up to resolve the dispute over the new school building’s construction.

It was reported on New Straits Times that the school’s original wooden structure built by Jeram Estate Sdn. Bhd. in 1952, was torn down when the estate was sold to a property developer Pasdec Holdings Bhd. to make way for a residential project in mid 1990s.

The developer allowed pupils and teachers to occupy the cabins as part of a temporary arrangement until a new school building was built.