Jiao Zong regrets that Chua Tee Yong’s statement is misleading

China Press, November 11, 2014

Kuala Lumpur, Nov 12 – Jiao Zong (The United Chinese Schools Teachers’ Association) criticized Chua Tee Yong on his statement that Chinese primary schools (SJKC) were getting an average of RM1.8 million allocations per school under the Budget 2015.

It said that Chua’s statement was misleading and trying to cover up the unfair treatment by the government on SJKC. It urged MCA presidential council to take note on this.

In a statement issued today, Jiao Zong expressed its regret over Chua Tee Yong’s statement and requested Chua to clarify his statement to avoid confusing.

It said the Chinese community did not query on the government’s handling of the operating expenditure, because allocations given to schools of various streams were based on unified standard and system, the Chinese community only query the unfair handling of the development allocation.
“The development allocation for the Chinese primary schools are not enough to cope with the actual development needs, this is what the Chinese community are dissatisfied with.”

Chua Tee Yong had said under the Budget 2015, the government had allocated RM10 billion for 8,300 national schools’ operating expenditure, while RM2.4 billion were allocated for SJKC, an average of RM1.8 million per school, whereas the national schools only receive RM1.3 million per school, this showed that the government did not marginalize SJKC.
Not conform to actual situation

Jiao Zong explained that there were two types of government allocation to all the schools, namely operating allocation and development allocation; as the calculation on the operating allocation is the same in all schools, the allocation ratio was also the same.

Jiao Zong said as MCA leader, Chua Tee Yong should know very well all the while SJKCs were lack of development allocation and were forced to raise fund on their own. He should not have mixed up the operating expenditure with the development expenditure.

Jiao Zong said Chua Tee Yong had used the budget allocation as an example to prove that the government did not marginalize the Chinese schools; this did not conform to the real situation.

“If every Chinese school receives RM1.8 million development allocations annually, then the school authority no longer ahve to raise fund; the deputy minister should clearly explain the details of the allocation like whether it includes the teachers’ salary.”

Jiao Zong also clarified that according to the figures given by the Ministry of Education, as at January 31, 2014 there were 5,863 national primary schools in the country and not 8,300 as mentioned by Chua Tee Yong.

Original Source: 指華小平均獲180萬撥款 教總遺憾蔡智勇誤導