You can wear brown, black, grey or white school shoes, quips Mahathir
This comes after an uproar earlier this week over a circular by the education ministry to carry out a survey on the introduction of black shoes in schools.
KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said today he will not touch the black-shoe policy introduced by former education minister Maszlee Malik.
Mahathir, who is also the acting education minister, quipped that the students are free to wear shoes of any colour that they wanted after an uproar earlier this week over a circular by the education ministry.
“You can wear brown shoes, black shoes, grey shoes, white shoes or any shoes.
“As far as I am concerned, you can wear any shoes,” he told reporters at a press conference after PPBM’s Supreme Council meeting today.
On Wednesday, a circular by the education ministry directed all schools nationwide to carry out a survey on their students allowed to wear black shoes.
The Jan 14 letter to all state education departments went viral on social media.
In 2018, Maszlee said the education ministry would allow students to wear black shoes and socks in schools from 2019, before its full implementation in 2021.
Mahathir admitted that he was still learning about his tasks as the acting education minister after Maszlee resigned on Jan 3.
He said both he and the ministry’s new director-general, Habibah Abdul Rahman, are new and will discuss whether any new policies should be implemented.
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“I had a very long meeting yesterday. I am still digesting all the information. I am a little bit confused because so many facts were presented. I have to study all that,” he said.