Pay attention to grouse against extra school fees
DAP National Deputy Chairman and MP for Kepong Dr Tan Seng Giaw calls on the Education Minister YB Dato' Seri Hishamuddin to pay attention to additional fees for school activities, so as to calm down the feeling of parents.
Dr Tan issues a statement on additional school fees on 6.1.2008.
On 7 September, 2007, the Prime Minister and Finance Minister YAB Dato' Seri Abdullah presented the 2008 National Budget which allocates RM 16.4 billion for primary and secondary schools in the country.From 1 January, 2008, all school fees are scrapped and 5.7 million students are eligible for the loan scheme for textboooks.
Parents welcome free education. But, they may feel differently about extra payment.During the debate on the educational allocations last December, I reminded the Education Minister that parents would respond to additional school fees. Sure enough, as 500,000 new students throng the schools, some parents complain about additional fees. For Chinese and Tamil schools, parents have been more used to additional fees; the feeling may not be so high.
Usually, schools charge some fees for extracurricular activities and tuitions, including computer classes.The Education Minister has to assure parents that there are no irregularities in extra payments at schools.
Hisham says,"Ask your (parents') conscience! The money is for children's schools, for their benefits. If you can afford it,please contribute.If you cannot,I don't force you.But, ask yourself whether you qualify for assistance."
One guideline says that additional fee in primary schools must not exceed RM 38 and that for secondary schools RM 55. Hisham mentions RM 25 or RM 35 (per student).
I believe that the Education Minister need not be angry. He will find that the feeling of some parents about additional fee may not be so high. He ought to pay attention to parents' emotion over this type of payment and to ascertain effective ways of putting them at ease.
Dr Tan Seng Giaw
posted by Tan Seng Giaw @ 1/06/2008 04:23:00 PM
1 Comments:
Voon Lee Shan is morally corrupt!
One of the few remaining mission schools in Sarawak, St Martin primary school in Muara Tuang, will likely shut down for good. Last November, it was sent an eviction notice from the five-hectare plot of land it occupies.
State Education Director Dr Julaihi Bujang said the 313 pupils in the largely Iban village have been transferred to Sekolah Kebangsaan Muara Tuang, SK Barangan and few other schools in the nearby the Semarahan district.
The trouble started last April, when the landowner Millah Kitat, through her legal counsel Voon Lee Shan, issued a letter giving the Anglican mission that runs the school an ultimatum: Buy the whole 12ha parcel of land on which the school stands or move out within a week.
Millah owns the land under Native Customary Rights (NCR).
When the school failed to move out within the deadline Voon, the DAP state assemblyman for Batu Lintang, served another legal letter demanding RM700,000 compensation within a week, claiming the school had trespassed on Millah's land.
To avoid further legal complications, the state Education Department ordered the school shut.
"The previous land owner Lian Teetat Emparu had divided the land for the Anglican mission to build the school but it was not legalised,” said Julaihi.
"There were some agreements drawn up by the late Emparu. The ‘agreement’ stated that the land would be ‘free of charge’, and the heir or heirs would not develop that portion of land alienated for the school," he said.
Since the agreement was not legalised, it became a point of dispute with Millah, Emparu's daughter, who inherited the land when he died.
"The legal summons issued to us is still on going. The landowner and her legal counsel did not give us much time to negotiate, and there is no way the education department of the mission can come up with the RM700,000 within seven days of the issuance of the letter, dated October 23, 3007," Julaihi said.
The state Education Department, meanwhile, has identified a piece of land near the old school and they have proposed to purchase it.
Julaihi said they are still waiting for the Education Ministry's approval, and this will take some time.
"It will take some time to pay the compensation demanded by the landowner, and it will definitely take more time to purchase land and build a school," he said.
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