Get your facts right before talking about paid IT Literacy Classes!
Get your facts right before talking about paid IT Literacy classes!
Photo credit: Free Malaysia Today
I would like to ask Teo Nie Ching what is the meaning free education that the government is said to provide to primary school children.
At a press conference recently, Jiazhong adviser Edward Neoh said that the Deputy Minister of Education had given the greenlight to schools to bring back the paid computer classes.
According to Teo, the schools are allowed to conduct these classes during school hours provided the school Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) has unanimously agreed to conduct it.
It appears to me that Teo had said that the state education department (JPN) is empowered to approve on the paid classes during school hours. Parents would then have to pay for these classes that are conducted by external vendors.
I want Teo to explain how schools and PIBGs can legally sign contracts for the leasing of computers. Who authorised the signing of these leasing contracts which we have been hearing about? Has Teo even realised what is happening in the schools?
Since when did the Pakatan Government do away with free education; instead, has it agreed that the PTAs can charge a fee for any kind of classes which are conducted during school hours so long as they can get it approved in the PIBG and the local district education office?
If not, then Teo should make it clear that the schools can conduct these classes, but there should be no collection of fees.
After all, if PTAs are so gung-ho about the IT literacy classes, they should bear the cost of running these classes. This is the spirit of free education as mentioned in one of the letters attached. In return, parents will donate any amount to the PTA.
If Teo does not make her statement clear, I assure her that there will be people with vested interest who will manipulate parents into thinking that they are required to pay a fee for these classes.
When this happens, it goes without saying that the Ministry of Education has lost control over the way education is conducted in national schools. It makes me wonder if the government is now abandoning its IT initiatives such the VLE Frog and now supporting fee-based computer classes.
This has been an ongoing battle between parents and the people with vested interest. A lot of money is involved but the freeware that are taught such as TuxPaint are hardly of any use to our children.
In my son’s school, the PTA collects RM300,000 and pays RM200,000 to the vendors or external trainers. It keeps the other RM100,000 and the principal gets to spend it on big items while the essential items such as footballs, basketballs and so on were not replaced. The bottomline is the money had to come out from parents and the classes are conducted during school hours.
In 2017, the former minister of education, Mahdzir Khalid had put a stop to these paid IT literacy classes because they go against the government’s policy.
The schools were instead allowed to conduct the classes outside the school hours, so that only parents who want their kids to attend these classes, will pay. For the rest of us, we can save some hard earned money by teaching the kids ourselves.
Now that Teo has opened the floodgate, I dread to think there will be more things that the ministry will allow the PTAs to carry out. Left to do its own things, soon, they can also decide on how many workbooks that the children have to buy. It can also conduct a thousand and one activities, and parents have to pay all sorts of fees. This is how some PTAs in the bigger schools can accumulate up to a million Ringgit in its funds.
I can only conclude after this episode between Jia Zhong and Teo, that the Ministry of Education, and both its minister and deputy minister, have lost control over the education system in the country.
What is the point of having policies in place when you have no control over the schools and the way the principals and PTAs run the schools?
STEPHEN NG is an ordinary citizen with an avid interest in following political developments in the country since 2008. After May 9, 2018, he is now involved in contributing ideas towards rebuilding of the nation.
(EDITORIAL NOTE: I AM GLAD THAT YB TEO HAS CLARIFIED THAT PAID COMPUTER CLASSES DURING SCHOOL HOURS WILL NEVER BE APPROVED BY THE MINISTRY. THIS IS CONSISTENT TO THE MINISTRY'S GUIDELINES)
A reply which I received from her office at 11:33pm 26.01.2019 stated:
"We didn't allow to run paid computer classes during school hours."
So, parents who are concerned that the schools will once again introduce paid computer classes during school hours, you can ask your PIBG or HM to do whatever they like, as YB Teo will stick to the ministry's policy. And for those who think that ministry's guidelines can be broken, please try to do it at your own expense.
END.
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