Chua: Right not to fund independent schools

Leven Woon | September 13, 2012

MCA chief says if Chinese independent schools get government funding, then they will not be independent anymore.

KUALA LUMPUR: MCA president Dr Chua Soi Lek says that the government should not be funding independent Chinese high schools, otherwise they will not be independent.
He said if the government allocates funding for independent schools others will also ask for funding.
“You must understand that there are more than 500 independent schools in the country, some of which are English independent schools and independent Muslim religious schools.
“If you gives allocations to the Chinese independent schools, the other private schools will also start asking.
“We do give funds [to them] as when the need arises ,” he said, adding that the allocations should not be fixed.
He was commenting on the National Education Blueprint unveiled on Tuesday. He agreed that the Chinese independent schools should continue to be excluded from the list of government-aided schools.
The Chinese educationists have been lobbying for the government to allocate funds to some 60 independent high schools, as a recognition for what they have achieved.
But the proposed blueprint has again grouped the schools under “non-mainstream” type which receives no government aids.
Meanwhile, Chua said he does not agree with DAP’s criticisms that the blueprint has failed to outline concrete measures to address the shortage of teachers in vernacular schools.
He said Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak has set up a special committee to look into the issue, and statistics shows that the shortage has been reduced from 4,009 in 2006 to 1,008 now.

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