The Sri Murugan Centre (SMC), Ipoh Branch, held one of its ‘get-togethers’ at Dewan Maha Mariamman in Buntong recently. The object of this gathering, held once every few months, according to its co-ordinator, K. Nachemutu, is to instil and to create awareness in parents the importance of education for their children.
At these gatherings, parents are encouraged to guide their children to excel in their studies so they will acquire the skills and knowledge that will help them in their later lives. The centre will inculcate discipline, values, moral and character-building to the children, besides providing free tuition.
The centre was started in 1983 by founder Dato’ Dr M. Thambirajah. Beginning with four centres it has now grown to 103 nationwide with over 10,000 students. It is appealing to the government for RM10,000 to help them continue with their welfare works.
Some prominent personalities produced by SMC are Dato’ Thaiveegan Arumugam, the Deputy CPO of Selangor, Dato’ S.K. Devamany, Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department and Dr Segar Narayanan, a lecturer at the Teachers’ Training College.
During the function, N. Komathi, a former headmistress, was honoured with the title, Mother of the Year for single-handedly raising three girls; a teacher, a doctor and a medical student, when her husband passed away.
SH Ong
