Segamat.com

By Noor Hazwan Hariz Mohd
From NST Online

JASIN:

Sekolah Harapan here may be just the best thing to happen to five pregnant teenagers in a long time.

After months of anguish and sadness, the school offers a ray of hope to them in terms of continued education that can lead to a brighter future for them and their unborn babies.

This was the general feeling among the teenagers as they enrolled yesterday in the "school of hope" here.

Sharing the teenagers' joy were their parents who felt that their children would have a chance to make it in the world with the academic, religious and moral classes at the school.

The school also offers proper pre-natal and post-natal medical care.

The father of the sole Chinese student from Segamat, Johor, said the family decided that Sekolah Harapan might be the best option for his 17-year-old daughter.

"This is the best option at hand. The alternative was to let live in a unforgiving society.

"My daughter might had made a mistake, but she has had realised it and is trying to change.

"But society around us does not understand this. It is typical for people to continue blaming those who had committed an error.

"As she is carrying a baby now, this school is the right place for her to focus on her studies and get good medical attention."

He said his daughter would be sitting the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia exams at the school in November.

"She has been on leave from her previous school for the past two months. We don't know how she will perform in her exams but we are willing to take that chance."

On the fact that the school was being run by the Malacca Islamic Department, he said the family had no problem with that.

The mother of a 17-year-old girl from Seremban, Negri Sembilan, were happy that the Malacca government had started the school for pregnant teenagers.

"We have faith in the school's ability to turn our daughter into a better person.

"This is the only place today that offers hope to pregnant girls."

She said the religious education offered by the school would help her daughter prepare for adult life.

The father of another girl said his daughter had asked to enrol in the school.

"She tried to kept her pregnancy from us, but finally confessed last month after she could not hide her belly any more.

"We were angry with her, but have forgiven her as she is our daughter.

"She is the one who suggested coming here after reading about it in a newspaper."

Meanwhile, school chairman Datuk Ab. Rahaman Ab. Karim, when met at the school, said classes would start today.

The school is the brainchild of Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam.