PONTIAN, Nov 10 — The Ministry of Education vows to ensure all students in the country can gain access to a quality education, regardless of where they live or go to school.

Its minister Dr Maszlee Malik said this was important to enable the students, whether in the urban or rural areas, achieve success in academic, co-curricular activities and sports.

"I am happy to see our children are able to represent districts and states, even though they live in the rural areas. This shows that wherever we are, we can succeed,” he told reporters after attending the Sekolah Kebangsaan Parit Patah 2019 Academic Excellence Awards here today.

Meanwhile, during his visit to Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina (SJKC) Tah Tong here, Maszlee said multicultural arts programme should be expanded to all schools in the country to foster unity.

During the visit, the minister was impressed with the ‘kompang’ (hand drum) performance by the pupils.

"We usually watch lion dance performances by Malay and Indian students but at this SJKC they have a kompang group,” he said, adding that such programmes could help deal with disciplinary problems among students.

The 94-year old school has 393 students of which 18 are Malays.

Later in the day, Maszlee held a dialogue with teachers from Pontian district and officiated ‘Assalamualaikum YB’ programme that took place at Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Seri Pontian here.

In its statement later, the ministry said about 300 teachers attended the programme that intended to explain the latest education policies and the presentation of the ministry’s 2019 report card.

"In ensuring the delivery system of the government is transparent and teacher-oriented, the Education Minister will always go down to the ground to hold dialogues with them. The ministry is committed to ensuring the education policies reach the grass root and are implemented successfully at the teacher’s level,” it added. — Bernama