Stop action against the school artists

LETTER | I condemn the statement by The Education Ministry to take action against the year 3 students of an international school for highlighting the issue of palm oil in their video presentation. The students are in the 7-8 year old age group.

I am commenting on a media report in which Education director-general Dr Amin Senin (photo) said the ministry will conduct an investigation and would take action against the school under the Education Act 1996.

I urge the ministry to stop the investigation and possible action against the students. 

The government may not agree with the content, but they should not punish the young for highlighting important issue like environment creatively.

Stop all the shallow-minded orientation in our education system that produce more robots than quality students.

Instead, we should encourage the young to be more creative and critical. They should be allowed to highlight important issues through the arts. 

We should encourage differing views. 

We should produce a society that is able to debate with facts - and it must be started from young.

I am concerned that the ministry's action could cause paranoia to the creative minds of the students, and could result in self-censorship. If that happens, our art scenario will continuously become monotonous.

Personally, I think the best art is the one that can convey good content and message, which is what is lacking in our education and art.

Zunar is a political cartoonist.

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