Adequate security for 5.4 million students in 9,943 schools.

DAP National Deputy Chairman and MP for Kepong Dr Tan Seng Giaw calls on the Government to provide adequate security for 5.4 million students in 9.943 schools in the country.

Besides security, the Education Ministry must ensure the quality of nearly 400,000 teachers. It should use a fair and just system to transfer teachers from one place to another.

On 4.1.2011, Dr Tan comments on security for schools after watching students, in particular 7-year olds going to schools with their parents on 3.1.2011.

After the unusual holiday on 31.12.2010, students have been in schools for the new term since yesterday. It is good to see that parents are happy accompanying their children to schools. We must not spare any effort to ensure that these students are safe at schools.

Annually, the Central Gocernment spends over 20% of its nearly RM200 billion annual budget on education. While this is the right thing to do, there must not be wastage. Although the policy is to reduce the number of students per class to fewer than 35, many schools still have more than 35. We need greater efforts to reduce the size of each class.

Despite the Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin's assurance that he has courses to improve the quality of teachers, he must look seriously into the effectiveness of some 12 types of courses for this purpose. Then, his Deputy Dr Wee Ka Siong talks about transferring teachers to areas far from their hometowns as compulsory. Apparently, last year there were nearly 11,000 applications for transfer and about 4,000 were approved. We require more dedicated teachers who must be treated fairly.

The Government must make sure that there are no irregularities in the transfer of teachers. The criteria used must be fair and just to all teachers.

Dr Tan Seng Giaw