The Hijacking of Public Education

I've been reading a spew of reports on the building of new Tamil and Chinese schools and the upgrading and repair of existing Tamil and Chinese schools. It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that these are election 'goodies' which are being announced on the even of a general election. The political scientist in me acknowledges that this is part and parcel of electoral politics in multi-ethnic Malaysia. But the liberal democrat in me thinks that politics should play as small as part as possible when it comes to educational policies and that education is too valuable to be used as an electoral tool.

Here are some recent newspaper reports regarding election 'goodies' in the form of Chinese and Tamil school - RM1.3 million for Kelantan Chinese schools, RM300,000 for Chinese schools in Sabah, the possibility of re-opening the Damansara Chinese school, RM20 million for 23 Tamil schools, the announcement for new and relocated Chinese schools.

While I understand the politics involved in the bargaining for more funding for Chinese and Tamil schools in the Malaysian context, I think that the debate on education should be on policy grounds, not on the allocation of money as a form of 'bribery', if you will. If the current government thinks that Chinese and Tamil schools are a good thing, then they should be willing to fund new Chinese and Tamil schools not just before an election but in between elections as well. It should be willing to increase the number of Chinese and Tamil schools and not just 'transfer' schools from one area to another.

Education is far too important of an issue to play 'politics' with and it is somewhat sad to see that this is being done on the eve of an election.

Shoplot School (II)

In a follow up story by Malaysiakini, it appears that SJK (T) Ladang Sungai Salak in Lukut, Negri Sembilan, while having shifted to "new" premises in the shoplot as per my earlier blog post, will face new financial challenges.

“Now the rental of RM500 and utility bills of RM200 are being paid by donors,” [School Board Chairman, A Ponniah] said.

Asked if the school has approached the government for assistance, he said the board had asked for money to buy furniture, but that the district education department rejected the appeal.

“In June, we asked if the education ministry could at least take over payment of one of the utility bills,” he said.

“Last month, they agreed verbally to pay the electricity bill for three months - possibly from this month, although we don’t know for sure. I guess, after three months, they expect us to find another donor to take care of the bill.”

Why is the school board forced to beg from the Ministry a couple of thousand ringgit to maintain the school?

Is there a demand for the school? Apparently there is.

Ponniah also said there has been good response to enrolment in the school despite its unconventional location.

“We easily get more than 100 applications, but cannot accept everyone because of space constraints,” he said, adding that there are plans to rent the neighbouring shoplot if the enrolment increases next year.

Hence if there is such a demand, which exceeds the current schools' abilities to cope why isn't the Ministry of Education acting promptly on it? Why must education be politicised such that "interventions" must come from political parties, e.g., MIC in this case?

If the Government can announce the proposed expenditure of RM1.1 billion for motivational courses for students, why can't they spend not more than RM250,000 to build a proper school for the students in these village? Or is this the definition of the government's equitable education system?

Shoplot School

I've been told by some that I seem to have written less "positive" things both here on this Education blog as well as over at my personal blog since I "officially" announced my decision to join the Democratic Action Party.

I can only write here to reassure you that my thinking process hasn't changed at all, and I'm not obligated to write more "opposition" posts. However, over the past year, a certain sense of pessimism seems to have set in, whereby my faith in the Government, its rhetoric versus its action (or rather non-action), leaves much less to feel "positive" about, and hence its possibly reflected in my writings.

Take the following story, just published in Malaysiakini - "Government school sets up home in double-storey shoplot", a sense of despair over our education policies will just set in.

SJK (T) Ladang Sungai Salak’s staff and students moved into the shoplot on July 26 - believed to be a first in Malaysia - while awaiting for a land grant from the government.

When contacted, headmaster M Krishnamoorthy, 44, explained the dire situation which prompted the school to move into the shoplot. He said that the school was originally located in the nearby Siliau estate.

“When the estate was closed down in the 1990s, estate workers started to move out to the nearby town and the number of students in the school dwindled,” said Krishnamoorthy. “Despite numerous attempts, the Education Ministry never approved our application...".

This appears to be polar opposite of Datuk Seri Samy Vellu's preposterous boast in September 2006 that 21 new Tamil primary schools were built under the Eighth Malaysia Plan and that MIC wants the government to build 14 new Tamil primary schools under the Ninth Malaysia Plan. His grandstanding theatrics was easily proven false as not even a single Tamil school was built under the 8th Malaysian Plan and it is very unlikely that any new Tamil school will be built under the 9th Malaysian Plan.

Now, it appears clear that the Tamil community can't even depend on the Government to provide for relocation, much less the construction of new schools. What's worse, the relocation expenses had to be raised from the public!

The school, with the help from Rajagopalu [state assemblyman for Port Dickson], collected RM80,000 from the public and converted the shoplot into a fully air-conditioned school building.

The plight of the Indian community, particularly those living in the plantation estates and its surrounding townships are in all probability the poorest and most marginalised underclass in Peninsula Malaysia. As I've often emphasized on this blog, education is the best equaliser in the society and offers the best opportunity for the next generation to break out of the poverty trap cycle.

Only yesterday, MCA President, Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting boasted of his party's 'successful' effort in having 17 Chinese primary schools relocated to more populous areas since 2004. However, there are at least another 80 schools around the country which requires reallocation, and possibly another 100 new schools to cope with the burgeoning Chinese school population. Are we now degraded to beggar politics whereby we cry with joy whenever we are offered crumbs?

We certainly hope that it will not become a trend whereby vernacular schools will be forced to raise funds from the public in order to relocate into shoplots which are clearly inadequate in terms of facilities for our young Malaysians. Our Education Minister, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein promised fair treatment for all schools.

The plight of Tamil schools

Hopefully, I'll be able to blog about the latest announcement by the Education Minister in regards to the progress the Ministry has made in fulfilling the objectives of the Education Blueprint (2006-2010) and the 9MP (especially after the full report is out on the Ministry's website). But for now, I'll focus on one element of that progress report which is to make Tamil schools all fully government supported.

According to a recent report in the Star (taken from Malaysian Nanban), " There are 524 Tamil schools in the country with about 150 of them in rural areas and estates, and being partly aided by the government." I'm not sure if this is saying that only 150 out of 524 Tamil schools are partly aided schools or that 150 Tamil schools that are in rural areas and estates are partly aided (there might be other Tamil schools in urban areas which are also partly aided).

As far as I know, partly aided schools (mostly SRJK(C) and SRJK(T)) are schools were the government / MOE pays the salaries of the teachers and staff but does not allocate money for improving or building new infrastructure in these schools e.g. computer labs, upgrading of facilities, new buildings etc... This means that the physical state of many of these partly aided schools, especially those in rural areas and the estates, is very poor.

My impression is that Tamil schools, on the whole, lack the community support which many of the Chinese schools have. Some of this can be explained by the income levels of the parents in the estates where many of these Tamil schools are located. There are other institutional explanations as well such as the better organized Chinese education movement and the larger numbers of Chinese who send their children to the Chinese primary schools.

According to a report by MIED (Maju Institute for Education Development), dated from 2004, "There are 376(71.5%) out of 526 Tamil schools classified as partially aided schools." This may have changed over the past 3 years or so but the announcement by the Education Minister, Hishammudin Tun Hussein, to have all Tamil schools eventually moved to a fully aided status is certainly welcome news for the Indian community, especially those living in the estates.