Perak Government Only Helping Chinese Private Schools ?

Deputy Education Minister Datuk Razali Ismail said he was disappointed with the step by the Perak state government to award 400 hectares of land to private Chinese schools only while public religious schools and Tamil schools, who were equally in need, also required aid and attention from the state government.

"If they really want to help to enhance education in the state, why give land to private Chinese schools only?" he said here Wednesday.

State governments that want to give aid to schools in their respective states are urged to be fair and not consider political interests.



Perak To Approve Land For 18 Islamic Religious Schools

The Perak government will approve land to be given to 18 private Islamic religious schools like the allocation handed over to nine Chinese independent schools, recently.

Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin said the religious schools comprising nine primary and nine secondary schools had applied for 200ha of land to open up a plantation.

"They have set up a cooperative for the purpose. We have approved the application in principle," he told reporters after chairing the state executive council meeting here today.

Mohammad Nizar was commenting on a call from Perak Umno Youth to the state government to approve land for Islamic religious schools and Tamil schools as it had approved 1,000ha of land to nine Chinese independent schools.

He said the state government was also considering applications for over 1,00ha of land from various Islamic educational institutions like the Al-Quran memorisation institutes and pondok religious schools.

Mohammad Nizar said the state government had also approved an initial allocation of RM1.3 million to the 18 religious schools which were in deplorable state.

He said the state government would spend RM3.1 million a year by increasing the monthly allowance of 3,120 fardu ain (obligatory practice) teachers from RM500 to RM575 and the monthly allowance of Islamic kindergarten teachers from RM450 to RM575, both since three months ago.

On the Chinese independent schools, he said they would be forming a non-profit company to look after their operations which run into RM10 million a year.

"This is the way we can help them in the long run. They can plant oil palm for quick return as they can reap the harvest in only two and half years. A yearly financial aid of RM30,000 from the state government is not enough," he said.

Meanwhile, Perak Education, Local Government, Housing and Public Transport Committee chairman Nga Kor Ming said the Chinese independent schools had never received any financial aid from the federal government.

He said the schools had been having deficit budget yearly and had to deploy students to collect donations during school holidays.