Monday, January 07, 2008
The Sun : Parents bear brunt of weak allocation system
WEB EDITION :: Local News
Parents bear brunt of weak allocation system
Llew-Ann Phang
newsdesk@thesundaily.com
PETALING JAYA: Problems over school fees collection stem from the Education Ministry’s failure to provide sufficient allocations for school maintenance and other matters like security.
Commenting on a problem that has made headlines in the last week, the Pahang Consumers Association (PAC) said the ministry must identify and overcome the root of the issue through vetting the various fees schools charge parents.
"The ministry should also set clear guidelines on such collections, besides forbidding schools from displaying the name list of students or parents who did not pay non-compulsory fees," said PAC president Muhammad Sha’ani Abdullah in a statement.
He said parents now foot part of the bill for school maintenance, a result of a weak system, especially in the ministry’s department which handles planning and allocation applications for school operations.
"Previous experiences have seen toilets in schools taking up to two or three years to be repaired due to the lack of funds but this has not served as an example to the school administration in the drawing up their annual budgets.
"These administrators dare not take the issue of lack of funds to the education department and take the easy way out by ‘forcibly’ collecting monies from parents," Muhammad Sha’ani added.
These issues, he said, will not come up at any other government department as they do not have other ways of getting money for the maintenance of buildings, replacement of equipment or furniture, upgrading of facilities or even the security service.
"No department would even collect fees for these from their customers or consumers," he said.
Although the subject of school fees has irked parents all along, it has become more of an issue this year because of earlier expectations raised by the government’s budget announcement to abolish school fees of RM4.50 for each primary school pupil and RM9 for each secondary school student.
Instead of paying less, parents found that they had to pay the same amount as previous years, and sometimes even more.
Such fees, which are not standard, cover miscellaneous items like contributions to the school’s Parents-Teachers Association (PTA), building maintenance, computer usage, orientation sessions, school badges, additional books and sports attire. The additional school fee charges are usually drawn up by the school and its PTA with reference to the ministry’s guidelines.
The guidelines mention three main packages – A for schools with a majority of parents being professionals, or run successful businesses; B for schools with parents mostly made up of traders or civil servants in the support group and C for rural schools with parents mostly comprising self-employed workers, petty traders or plantation workers.
The ministry’s guidelines only state a minimum charge of RM38.50 for Package A, RM30.50 for Package B and RM23.50 for Package C for primary schools while the secondary schools have advised annual charges of RM55.50 for Package A, RM44.50 for Package B and RM33.50 for Package C.
The school and PTA are allowed to add on to the list of fees stated if they feel it appropriate. And this is where the problem occurs.
Education Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein had said that such fees are not compulsory and those who could not pay in a lump sum could do so in installments. His statement backfired when some quarters asked for their fees back.
Parents bear brunt of weak allocation system
Llew-Ann Phang
newsdesk@thesundaily.com
PETALING JAYA: Problems over school fees collection stem from the Education Ministry’s failure to provide sufficient allocations for school maintenance and other matters like security.
Commenting on a problem that has made headlines in the last week, the Pahang Consumers Association (PAC) said the ministry must identify and overcome the root of the issue through vetting the various fees schools charge parents.
"The ministry should also set clear guidelines on such collections, besides forbidding schools from displaying the name list of students or parents who did not pay non-compulsory fees," said PAC president Muhammad Sha’ani Abdullah in a statement.
He said parents now foot part of the bill for school maintenance, a result of a weak system, especially in the ministry’s department which handles planning and allocation applications for school operations.
"Previous experiences have seen toilets in schools taking up to two or three years to be repaired due to the lack of funds but this has not served as an example to the school administration in the drawing up their annual budgets.
"These administrators dare not take the issue of lack of funds to the education department and take the easy way out by ‘forcibly’ collecting monies from parents," Muhammad Sha’ani added.
These issues, he said, will not come up at any other government department as they do not have other ways of getting money for the maintenance of buildings, replacement of equipment or furniture, upgrading of facilities or even the security service.
"No department would even collect fees for these from their customers or consumers," he said.
Although the subject of school fees has irked parents all along, it has become more of an issue this year because of earlier expectations raised by the government’s budget announcement to abolish school fees of RM4.50 for each primary school pupil and RM9 for each secondary school student.
Instead of paying less, parents found that they had to pay the same amount as previous years, and sometimes even more.
Such fees, which are not standard, cover miscellaneous items like contributions to the school’s Parents-Teachers Association (PTA), building maintenance, computer usage, orientation sessions, school badges, additional books and sports attire. The additional school fee charges are usually drawn up by the school and its PTA with reference to the ministry’s guidelines.
The guidelines mention three main packages – A for schools with a majority of parents being professionals, or run successful businesses; B for schools with parents mostly made up of traders or civil servants in the support group and C for rural schools with parents mostly comprising self-employed workers, petty traders or plantation workers.
The ministry’s guidelines only state a minimum charge of RM38.50 for Package A, RM30.50 for Package B and RM23.50 for Package C for primary schools while the secondary schools have advised annual charges of RM55.50 for Package A, RM44.50 for Package B and RM33.50 for Package C.
The school and PTA are allowed to add on to the list of fees stated if they feel it appropriate. And this is where the problem occurs.
Education Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein had said that such fees are not compulsory and those who could not pay in a lump sum could do so in installments. His statement backfired when some quarters asked for their fees back.
