KUCHING, Nov 7: Chinese schools will now have to wait for ‘election times’ to get possible allocations of annual budgets for school development and repair purposes, says Sarawak Democratic Action Party (DAP) chairman Chong Chieng Jen.
“It seems that, with Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, UMNO (United Malays National Organisation) and Pas (Parti Islam Se-Malaysia) forming the core of the federal government, it is now back to the old days where Chinese school boards will have to wait for elections to get their allocations if any,” he said.
He added Chinese schools will have to ‘beg’ for budget allocations now since the systematic budget allocation for Chinese schools initiated by the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government previously has been removed entirely in the recent Budget 2021.
“Now, the Chinese schools are back to the old BN (Barisan Nasional) days of uncertainty in (obtaining) allocations for maintenance and repair for the schools.
“And the school boards of management will have to resort to the constant ‘begging’ for the goodwill of the Prime Minister and Minister of Education for allocations,” he explained in a statement today.
Emphasising that there was fixed allocation in the annual budget for nationwide Chinese schools, he added the disbursement of the promised allocations was also prompt and much of the funds were released at the beginning of the year.
This was most helpful for the school boards to do the necessary planning of repair or development for the rest of the year.
Thus, he said the Chinese school boards of management would no longer be able to do earlier planning without the systematic allocation currently.
“With the removal of the systematic allocation, the Chinese school boards of management are now left to ‘beg’ for allocations, not knowing how much will be allocated and when will the fund be allocated, making it very difficult for the school boards to do the necessary planning,” said Chong.-DayakDaily
