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How is it that the children had developed such a fear of the school’s teachers that they evaded the search party, thinking they would be brought back to school and punished?
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Missing Orang Ali kids were within 1km of the school hostel!
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Officers still trying to persuade SK Tohoi pupils to go back to school
The District Education Office is still trying to persuade the 71 pupils of SK Tohoi in Gua Musang to go back to school.
Its officer, Muhammad Zahari Othman, said visits to eight villages were being arranged so that the parents would take their children’s school attendance more seriously.
“At our meeting with the parents this morning at Pos Simpor, they expressed their intention to send their children back to school because of fears that their children will fall behind in their studies,” he told reporters after the meeting at Pos Simpor today.
Zahari said they had used various methods to ease the stress of the parents who were still affected by the tragedy of the missing seven pupils from SK Tohoi last August.
He said so far, 115 out of 189 pupils attended school.
Zahari said two pupils from Pos Simpor moved to SK Kuala Betis.
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3 January 2016
Orang Asli pupils tragedy survivors no show at first day of school
Orang Asli pupils tragedy survivors no show at first day of… http://twib.in/l/Rx8pn8nnkae | https://twibble.io
…
Two Orang Asli pupils of Sekolah Kebangsaan (SK) Tohoi, Norieen Yaakob, 11, and Miksudiar Aluj, 12, who went missing for almost 50 days in the jungles of Tohoi last year, did not report to school today.
Norieen’s mother, Midah Angah, 41, said she had not made any arrangements to transfer her daughter to SK Kuala Betis because she had several matters to discuss with the Kelantan Education Department.
“I hope it’s director (Ab Aziz Abdullah) can come to Pos Tohoi because residents around Tohoi, not only me, want to discuss several matters with him.
“Among issues is the security at the school especially hostel, security guard and several other matters,” she said when met by reporters at Kampung Penad in Gua Musang today.
Prior to this, Norieen and Miksudiar were reported to have expressed their desire to transfer to SK Kuala Betis because they were still traumatised at the incident in August last year.
Meanwhile, Miksudiar’s mother, Rozita Bahir, 42, said education was very important, but at the same time she wanted a discussion to be held with the State Education Department.
“To date, I have held discussions with the Orang Asli headman, but I hope I can discuss with the State Education Department too, especially regarding the aspect of Miksudiar’s security in school.
“Miksudiar has voiced her desire to return to school, but not at SK Tohoi. She has opted to go to SK Betis,” she said.
https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/325335
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Star
3 January 2016 | MYT 8:18 PM
Orang asli community from seven villages shun SK Tohoi in Kelantan
GUA MUSANG: Orang asli community from seven villages at Pos Simpor and Pos Gob have shunned SK Tohoi about 50km from here by refusing to send their children there, resulting in a poor turnout during the new school session.
The school’s headmaster Khairul Azmi Mat Yusoff said only 99 students attended the first day on Sunday, adding that previously, there was an enrolment of 223 pupils.
“About 117 students who stayed in the school’s hostel from seven villages are not interested to go to this school despite the infrastructure upgrade.
“We have upgraded all the safety features in the school to woo the children to come here but to no avail. We intend to meet their parents to find out why their children refused to come to school,” he said.
…
A parent from Kamoung Sedal, Pos Simpor, Limat Lias, 49, said parents refused to allow their children to attend at SK Tohoi after suffering trauma over the incident.
“These parents are afraid of losing their children and want the district education officer to discuss the matter,” he said.
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@Checkalakh Huge problems re non-indigenous teachers who are ignorant, many with prejudice towards Orang Asli children.
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28 December 2015
NO, THEY ARE TERRIFIED, SO THEY WON’T RETURN…
Malaysian Insider
2 orang asli children want out of SK Tohoi
The two orang asli pupils of SK Tohoi, who were found alive after a group of seven pupils went missing last August, have expressed their wish to be transferred to SK Betis in Gua Musang.
Norieen Yaakob, 10, and Miksudiar Aluj, 11, are no longer interested in continuing their studies at SK Tohoi as they are still traumatised by the incident.
Norieen’s mother, Midah Angah, 40, said her daughter was interested to go back to school, but not at SK Tohoi.
“I hope to discuss this with the Gua Musang District Education Office and the Department of Orang Asli Development.
“I know SK Tohoi have improved a lot, but my daughter is more interested in joining SK Betis and there are hostel facilities there, too,” she told reporters at her Kampung Penad home yesterday.
– See more at: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/2-orang-asli-kids-wants-out-of-sk-tohoi#sthash.Lz8it9Zn.eJiDonMc.dpuf
…
Trauma SK Tohoi: Norieen mahu ke SK Kuala Betis http://bit.ly/1SiimrL
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30 October 2015
Big drop in Orang Asli attendance at SK Tohoi, post-tragedy
Attendance is only 55 percent (15 October).
Big drop in Orang Asli attendance at SK Tohoi, post-tragedy http://twib.in/l/K98bGBXnz8K | https://twibble.io
Sekolah Kebangsaan (SK) Tohoi… is experiencing a sharp decline in the attendance of Orang Asli students.
…
The Kelantan Education Director Ab Aziz Abdullah noted that the drop in attendance at the school started right after the incident, which started on Aug 23.
SK Tohoi had 223 students as of Aug 2 and recorded 85 percent attendance prior to the incident.
“However, the attendance initially declined to 78 percent by the fourth week after the seven went missing, and a week later, only half of the students turned up for school.
“The figures went up a bit on the seventh and eighth week with the attendance rate reaching 67 percent. Nonetheless, after the mid-term break from 20 Sept to 27 Sept, the attendance again declined drastically to 41 percent,” he said when met after the joint meeting between the department and the Orang Asli welfare department (Jakoa) at his office here, recently.
Elaborating further, Ab Aziz said the sharp fall in the number of students attending SK Tohoi after the mid-term break was because the pupils and parents were deeply affected by the incident.
…
Ab Aziz also noted the possibility that it was the parents who were keeping their children at home, for fear that their children might also run away from their hostel and suffer the same fate as the missing children.
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15 October 2015
The school delayed lodging a police report because cases of Orang Asli children running away from their hostels were not new and they have been found in their homes before.
Malaysiakini
Cops: Fear of punishment trigger in Pos Tohoi tragedy
The fear of being punished for bathing in a nearby river without permission is believed to have triggered the chain of events leading to the disappearance of the seven Orang Asli pupils and the tragedy that eventually befell them.
Kelantan police chief Mazlan Lazim said the incident began on Aug 22 when a group of 25 students from Sekolah Kebangsaan (SK) Tohoi went for a swim in a river near the school at 1 pm.
The school guard later informed the warden and the warden had then called three of the 25 students involved and informed them they would be punished the next day.
“Around 9pm the same day, 23 of the 25 students planned to flee to their villages, namely Kampung Penad and Kampung Gawin the next morning (Aug 23),” said Mazlan at a briefing during the handing over of donations by the Welfare Association of Wives of Ministers and Deputy Ministers (Bakti) president, Rosmah Mansor, at Raja Perempuan Zainab II Hospital in Kota Bharu, today.
Mazlan said on Aug 23, the hostel warden checked from 7am to 9am and found 23 students missing from their dormitories. The warden, with the hostel management assistant, security guards and two villagers, searched for the pupils.
“They met 16 students in a location at 6 pm and persuaded them to return to the hostel, however, the seven pupils were yet to be found. The school management with the help of villagers searched for them from 9pm until 12.30am the next day (Aug 24).
He said the pupils’ plans to run away from the boarding school came to light from interviews conducted on the 16 pupils who had returned to the hostel.
On Aug 24, the school authorities and the villagers continued the search from 8am to 3pm, covering a distance of one kilometre from the school , and also met the pupils’ parents in Kampung Penad and Kampung Gawin.
“However, after failing to find the seven pupils, the school authorities lodged a police report at 2.25am on Aug 25. Gua Musang District Police Headquarters (IPD) sent five personnel to Pos Tohoi at 9.30am to carry out search operations in nearby areas,” he said.
He said on Aug 25, the search and rescue (SAR) operations for the seven pupils had been mobilised, thus rejecting claims on social sites that the SAR team only started the operation on Aug 27.
https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/315895
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14 October 2015
Malay Mail Online
Minister livid over ‘all male staff’ in SK Pos Tohoi
PETALING JAYA, Oct 14 —Deputy Education Minister P. Kamalanathan said he would investigate claims there were only male teachers in SK Pos Tohoi, the boarding school in Gua Musang where four Orang Asli students had escaped from in August and found dead more than a month later.
“This is not supposed to happen,” he said yesterday.
“Who will the girls turn to if they have a problem? We will find out why all the teachers and wardens were men. There must be a reason,” he said.
Kamalanathan also said he would look into claims the school had no headmaster until after the students went missing.
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13 October 2015
Parents of Orang Asli kids not told they were missing
Parents of Orang Asli kids not told they were missing https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/315577 @yeobeeyin @KasthuriPatto
Two DAP elected representatives who visited Gua Musang in Kelantan recently said they were shocked to discover that the parents of the Orang Asli children were not notified by the school that the pupils were missing from the hostel.
MP for Batu Kawan Kasthuri Patto and Damasansara Utama state asseblyperson Yeo Bee Yin (photo) said the parents came to know their children were missing from the SK Tohoi hostel from a security guard there and by word of mouth from other Orang Asli villagers.
And, upon checking at the hostel, they learnt that their children had been missing since Aug 23.
Kasthuri and Yeo said the SK Tohoi authorities made a police report on Aug 25, two days after the children went missing.
It is believed that the children went missing after their older siblings were penalised by the school auhorities for swimming in a nearby river.
Search-and-rescue only launched four days later
The authorities arrived at Pos Tohoi for a search-and-rescue (SAR) mission on Aug 27, four days after the children went missing.
“The burning question here is why it took four days for the authorities to launch the SAR when knowing very well that they would be scouring and combing through rugged, unforgiving terrain that would be virtually impossible for children to survive without basic survival skills and tools?
“There was no official missing children listed by the school until at a much later stage in the development of the case,” Kasthuri (photo) and Yeo said in a statement today.
“Why had the parents of the Orang Asli children not been officially notified by the school authorities as their children had been under the care and jurisdiction of SK Tohoi and its wardens when they had gone missing?” they asked.
“Is there a different set of standard operating procedures between SK Tohoi and other schools in the more urban areas for informing parents of missing children and reporting such an unfortunate incident to the authorities?”
https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/315577
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12 October 2015
theSundaily
Kit Siang questions bad conditions of Orang Asli schools
Last updated on 12 October 2015 – 06:20pm
PETALING JAYA: DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang has called into question the deplorable conditions of schools and hostels for Orang Asli children, following the case of the seven missing children from the Temiar tribe.
He said that the school in Pos Tohoi, Gua Musang in Kelantan was in a lamentable condition with no basic amenities like water supply.
“Sometimes there is no water in the hostels, forcing the children to use the river. Broken and unmaintained fences also allowed for easy access out of the hostel grounds,” he said in a statement today.
Lim added that when the children went missing on Aug 23, the school had no headmaster. The new headmaster was only appointed on the day before Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s visit on Sept 28.
He also said that following the disappearance of the children, the enrollment rate at the school has suffered.
There were 170 students enrolled as of Aug 23 with 70 students staying in the hostel. After the incident, enrollment dropped to 103, with only 12 students left in the hostel.
“The drastic drop in enrollment and the number of boarders says a lot about the trust Orang Asli parents have in the ability of the school to provide a safe and conducive environment for their children,” he added.
http://www.thesundaily.my/news/1579086
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The following is an excerpt from
Malaysiakini
Pathetic excuses for failed rescue
Corporal punishment freely administered?
More serious is the allegation that three girls, who were the older sisters of some of the missing children, had been ‘beaten with a stick’ for swimming without permission.
Is corporal punishment freely administered in this school?
Why was there a break in the fence, through which children could slip, to escape the school grounds?
Why do children receive only three full days of lessons per week, at this school?
What else has the school got to hide?
What is the point of moving the hostel, before the current problems have been resolved?
The people who say that Najib Abdul Razak should order an investigation into the missing Orang Asli children are wasting their time.
MARIAM MOKHTAR is a defender of the truth, the admiral-general of the Green Bean Army and president of the Perak Liberation Organisation (PLO).
https://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/315402
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Malay Mail Online
SK Pos Tohoi students claim made to sleep on cement floors, wear dirty uniforms to class
…
GUA MUSANG, Oct 12 — A probe into the seven missing children has opened a can of worms as the struggles of the community here becomes apparent.
Claims of being ill-treated and neglected by teachers and wardens of SK Pos Tohoi have surfaced, and are rumoured to be connected to the disappearance.
Investigating the rumours, a Malay Mail team ventured into Pos Tohoi, and heard claims of mistreatment at the school as villagers voiced grave concern about the state of the boarding school.
“My daughter told me they all slept on cement floors in the hostel, and were forced to wear dirty uniforms to class,” said Ayel Ajib, 48, the father of Ika Ayel, whose body was found on Friday.
“She told me on some days, there would only be a total of two hours of classes. In an entire week, there would sometimes be only two days of lessons in total.
“The rest of the time the pupils were left to themselves,” he said.
Some parents said there were stories related to them by their children, in which physical abuse was mentioned.
Sobrie Latip, 25, father of Sasa, whose decomposed body was found on Wednesday, said his daughter had told him of teachers forcing pupils to look for a stick that was meant to be used as a cane.
“The juniors were asked to look for a cane, with the intention of it being used to discipline the seniors. And, if the cane they chose was not satisfactory, the teachers would make them look for another one,” he said.
Malay mail Online
SK Pos Tohoi tightens security as students stay away
GUA MUSANG, Oct 12 — It took a tragedy for SK Pos Tohoi, a primary school with a total enrolment of 130, to finally beef up security.
Workers were seen replacing the perimeter fence of the school yesterday but its hostel was virtually deserted.
The parents of 103 pupils from Kampung Simpul, Kampung Gawen and Kampung Penad, some 50km away, decided not to send their children to school, fearing another tragedy.
A Malay Mail check yesterday found only 20 pupils at school. Ten of them live in Pos Tohoi near the school and are not staying in the hostel.
A parent, who declined to be identified, said he feared for the safety of his nine-year-old son.
“The tragedy has frightened us. We would rather keep our children with us as we do not want something like this to happen again,” he said.
Another parent, who only wanted to be known as Teh, said the safety of her child was her priority.
“I can’t imagine the pain the parents of the missing pupils are going through. I’m afraid something like that can recur.”
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TODAY
Arrest or suspend those responsible for missing Orang Asli, says DAP official
KUALA LUMPUR — The government should either suspend or charge the individuals responsible for the missing Orang Asli children in Kelantan, DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang said today (Oct 11).
Four of the seven children, who went missing on August 23, have been found dead so far, while two were found alive, albeit in a malnourished state.
The girls were found on the banks of Sungai Perias yesterday.
“Those responsible for causing the case of the missing seven Orang Asli children, with five dead, in Gua Musang should be suspended or even charged for the crime of negligence,” he said in a statement today.
He also said that Malaysians must hang their heads in shame over what happened in the case of the seven missing children, who reportedly tried to escape punishment after being caught swimming at a nearby river.
“Malaysians must feel heart sick that such callousness, inhumanity, negligence and gross incompetence can happen in modern-day Malaysia as to cause a human disaster and tragedy of such unbelievable magnitude.”
The Gelang Patah MP also hit out at the government’s response to the tragedy, describing it as grossly inadequate and laughable.
Mr Lim said if the children were either Malay, Chinese or Indian, it would have caused a “hue and cry”.
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