This news is doubly disappointing - firstly, that the MCA could only hope to get three new Chinese primary schools built and another three re-located under the Eighth Malaysia Plan when MCA Ministers and leaders should be supporting the call for a New Deal for Mother-Tongue Education under the Eighth Malaysia Plan to build 250 new Chinese primary schools in the next five years.
Former MCA Minister and now MCA Secretary-General and Central Education Bureau chief, Datuk Dr. Ting Chew Peh had hailed the Cabinet meeting of 21st February 2001 as a "historic breakthrough for the future of Chinese education" in Malaysia as the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad had directed the Education Ministry to implement as soon possible the 1999 general election promise to build four new Chinese primary schools and relocate 13 Chinese primary schools and even more important, the Prime Minister had directed that new Chinese primary schools should be built according to “need” under the Eighth Malaysia Plan.
I do not know why the general election pledge to relocate 13 Chinese primary schools have suddenly been reduced to nine Chinese primary schools, but the pledge to build four Chinese primary schools and relocate nine Chinese primary schools should be regarded as projects to be carried out for last year, and not projects under the Eighth Malaysia Plan 2001-2005.
This is because Parliament had approved the 2000 Budget to build 371 new schools and it should be no problem whatsoever to build the four new Chinese primary schools as pledged in the 1999 general election as part of the 371 new school-building programme for last year.
The second reason for disappointment about the high-level MCA meeting on Chinese education yesterday is that there is no indication that MCA Ministers had asked that out of the additional 200 single session schools which are being immediately built under the RM3 billion economic stimulus package to counter the adverse effects of a slowdown of the United States economy, at least 20 of them would be new Chinese primary schools.
The Chinese school building and relocation programme for the next five years under the Eighth Malaysia Plan should not be lumped together with the 1999 general election pledge, as the Education Minister and in particular Hon Choon Kim would be most irresponsible and negligent if they could not ensure that the four new Chinese primary schools pledged in the last general elections are included among the 371 new schools provided for in the 2000 Budget passed by the new tenth Parliament.
The question is what the Eighth Malaysia Plan has in store for the building of new Chinese primary schools. If all that the MCA could promise is the building of three new Chinese primary schools and the relocation of another three Chinese primary schools in the next five years under the Eighth Malaysia Plan, then this is a terrible let-down as it would be against the directive of the Prime Minister in the Cabinet in February that new Chinese primary schools would be built according to “need” under the Eighth Malaysia Plan and which Ting Chew Peh had hailed as a "historic breakthrough for the future of Chinese education" in Malaysia.
Parliament should form an All-Party Parliamentary Committee for a New Deal for Mother-Tongue Education in Eighth Malaysia Plan to monitor the building of 250 new Chinese primary schools in the next five years, and MPs from all political parties whether Barisan Nasional or Barisan Alternative who support the New Deal for Mother-Tongue Education concept should put aside their political differences to work for a common cause.
Is the demand for 250 new Chinese primary schools under the Eighth Malaysia Plan excessive, unreasonable or extremist?
I was very angry last week when someone alleged that to ask for the building of 250 Chinese new primary schools under the Eighth Malaysia Plan was going against the Malaysian Constitution, for any such notion can only derive from a half-baked understanding of the Constitution.
A New Deal for Mother-Tongue Education in the Eighth Malaysia Plan building 250 new Chinese primary schools in the next five years is fully in keeping with both the spirit and letter of the Malaysian Constitution and a most reasonable demand for two important reasons:
Firstly, there are some 70,000 non-Chinese students in the Chinese primary schools in the country, which should have meant the building of some 120 new Chinese primary schools just to cater to this demand.
Secondly, the failure to build new Chinese primary schools to cope with the increased enrolment in the Chinese primary schools in the past 43 years of nationhoold.
During Independence in 1957, there were 1,333 Chinese primary schools with a total enrolment of 310,000 students. Forty-three years later in 2000, Chinese primary school enrolment has doubled to over 620,000. There was however no matching doubling of the number of Chinese primary schools in the past four decades. Instead, there was a reduction of 49 schools to 1,284 schools.
In 1968, there were 2,770 national primary schools with a total enrolment of 666,389 students. In the 32 years from 1968 to 2000, total enrolment in national primary schools reached 2,218,747 (an increase of 1,552,358) while the number of national primary schools increased by 2,637 new schools to reach a total of 5,407 schools.
This works out to an average of an increase of 588 students for a new national primary school. If the above average of a new national primary school for every increase of 588 students is applied to Chinese primary schools, there should be an increase of 527 new schools in the 43 years from Independence in 1957 to 2,000 for the doubling of the Chinese primary school enrolment from 310,000 to 620,000.
As in the past 43 years, there had been a reduction of 49 Chinese primary schools, this would put the shortfall of Chinese primary schools as of 2,000 at 527 + 49 = 576.
Asking for the building of 250 new Chinese primary schools from 2001 to 2005 when there should have been 576 new Chinese primary schools built by 2000 is therefore not being excessive, unreasonable or “extremist”.
In view of these reasons, I particularly call on MCA, Gerakan and SUPP Ministers and Members of Parliament to support the concept of a New Deal for Mother-Tongue Education in the Eighth Malaysia Plan, the building of 250 new Chinese primary schools in the next five years and the establishment of an All-Party Parliamentary Committee for a New Deal for Mother-Tongue Education under the Eighth Malaysia Plan, as they have assured the Chinese community in the last general election that they would be in the very forefront to defend and promote Chinese mother-tongue education in the country in the 21st century.
(7/4/2001)