(Petaling Jaya, Sunday): Once in every five years in the run-up to the impending general election, Chinese education becomes an electoral plaything by the Barisan Nasional government to get support from the Chinese voters.
Before the last general election in November 1999, for instance, Barisan Nasional leaders from the Prime Minister downwards suddenly have high praises for Chinese education as in having greater commitment and discipline as compared to national primary schools, and they gave all sorts of promises about the building of more Chinese primary schools, better and more equitable funding and resolution of all the long-standing problems, as acute shortage of trained teachers, etc.
But after the general election, all these praises and promises were quickly forgotten with the onset of the politics of ingratitude, with Chinese education again becoming the whipping boy, as evidenced by the controversies over Suqiu and Vision Schools plan and the epithets of "communists", "extremists", "anti-national" and "fanatics" thrown at the supporters of Suqiu and Chinese education by top government leaders in the past year.
During the general election campaign, MCA went to the country promising that the government would build an additional six new Chinese primary schools - which is a most ridiculous situation especially as UMNO never had to make such promises, as schools whether national primary schools or SRJK © or (T) should be built on the basis of need, wherever there are adequate demands by parents for such schools.
In the past 20 years, some 1,000 new national primary schools were built in the country to cater for increased student intake. However, although there was also an increased enrolment for Chinese primary schools in the past 20 years, there was not only no increase in the number of Chinese primary schools, there was an actual reduction.
This is why the government’s intention to relocate the SRJK © Damansara Baru is facing such strong protest from the parents - as what is needed is the increase and not the reduction of the existing number of Chinese primary schools.
Chinese mother -tongue education should be fully integrated into the mainstream of the national education system and stop being an electoral plaything once in five years.
The Eighth Malaysia Plan should initiate a new education policy to build
new Chinese primary schools wherever there is need justified by parental
demand - which would be in the order of from 50 - 100 new Chinese primary
schools for the next five years.
(10/12/2000)