GEORGE TOWN: Three schools, including the oldest girls convent in Southeast Asia, are closing down in Penang.

The land on which Convent Light Street, its primary school and Convent Pulau Tikus, are situated does not belong to the Education Ministry.

The Provincial Secretariat of the Sisters of Infant Jesus -- the trustee landowner -- informed the state Education Department of its decision to take back the land, and, in a letter on Wednesday, the department informed the principals and headmaster that the process to close the school has begun.

The three schools will no longer have new intakes and the existing student body will be the last.

Convent Light Street is the oldest girls school in Southeast Asia, founded in 1852. Convent Pulau Tikus was founded in the early 1900s.

The Star's Metro North edition on Friday reported about the impending closure of Convent Pulau Tikus.

Sisters of Infant Jesus has not issued any statements.

Rumours are rife that the schools would be developed into private international schools.