WE have seen the end of 2016 and while our top government officials are on their annual leave, more than 800 Chinese primary schools are still waiting for their special maintenance and building funds.
It seems the problem will not be resolved this year and like last year, these same schools will have to wait until the new year to get their funding. Hopefully.
I still remember in the allocation of funds for education last year, the 2015 Budget earmarked RM50 million for Chinese primary schools.
For a time, these schools received only RM20 million. In this case, the Malaysia Chinese Association (MCA) adhered to the principle of distributing the funds only when all RM50 million was received.
They eventually got the full lump sum and issued the money by January this year.
As we all know, the situation this year is different from last year’s.
The 2015 Malaysian Budget clearly allocated RM50 million to Chinese primary schools while for 2016, no funds were specified.The Education Ministry only issued a special grant in September this year.
We also know the Education Ministry has a special fund to be distributed to Chinese primary schools that really need it athough the Ministry and its Deputy Minister did not disclose the amount.
Lost in the fog, the media could only go through a variety of channels to grasp the situation. Some say only RM20 million in special allocations are left while some point out the allocations do not even amount to RM20 million.
We are only aware the MCA requires the special grant for Chinese primary schools to be at least the same as last year’s RM50 million.
When meeting up with Deputy Minister of Education Datuk Chong Sin Woon, the media came to know MCA president Datuk Sri Liow Tiong Lai had once met Prime Minister Datuk Seri NajibTun Razak who promised to grant a special fund of RM50 million.
Since the PM has promised to give this special fund to MCA and our Second Minister of Finance Johari Abdul Ghani has repeatedly stressed the money has been issued to the Education Ministry, why then would the Education Ministry need to continue paying lip service?
Of course, we also know the total amount for construction and maintenance allocated to schools in 2016 has been substantially reduced by RM300 million compared with 2015.
With the number of Chinese primary schools in Malaysia, it is not a trivial matter to ask for a special grant of RM50 million this year.
The Chinese community has always prioritised education. Although it might not be too difficult to raise funds for education, given that Chinese education is an integral part of country’s education system and that an increasing number of non-Chinese students is enrolling in Chinese primary schools, the construction and maintenance of these schools have become not only the responsibility of the Chinese community but also the Education Ministry’s.
In the last days of 2016, the PM’s Department and the Education Ministry should coordinate as efficiently as possible so that Chinese primary schools can be repaired or bulit to provide a safe and conducive learning environment for our students.
(From Oriental Daily)