Dong Zong urges SJKC to stop converting into fully-aided school

Oriental Daily, July 28, 2016

Kuala Lumpur, July 27 – United Chinese School Committees’ Association (Dong Zong) urged the Chinese primary schools board of directors who had already made up their mind to convert to fully-aided school to immediately stop such move and to discuss with Dong Zong as well as other education bodies so that proper decision could be reached.

In a statement issued today in response to the decision of some partially aided Chinese primary schools (SJKC) to convert to fully-aided school, Dong Zong said there was no such thing as fully-aided school（sekolah bantuan penuh）and partially aided school （sekolah bantuan modal）mentioned in Education Act, 1957 or Education Act 1961 or even Education Act 1996.

Under the Education Act 1996, it is the government aided schools which have the right to access to fund allocation and capital grants (also known as administration fund and development fund), there is no such thing as receiving only one type of allocation or partial allocation, there is also no provision for fund allocation and capital grants based on the ownership of the land of the school.

According to Dong Zong, under Section 53 (1) and Section 53 (3) of the Education Act 1996, national type Chinese primary schools as well as the schools designated by the minister must set up board of directors, to hastily convert the government aided school to government school might cause the board of directors to lose its right to school management.

Should treat all schools equally

The statement said majority of the lands where SJKC and Tamil primary schools were built were not owned by the government, the categories of fully-aided and partially aided school created by education ministry not only was law outside the legislation, but also had denied the position and rights of the Chinese and Tamil primary schools, in which the measure had restricted the development of both Chinese and Tamil primary schools.

Dong Zong said the civil society had assisted in the development of state education and cultivating of talents, hence they should be praised and affirmed. Regardless whether the land belongs to the central government or state government, board of directors, missionary schools, or private owned primary schools of all streams, all were schools under the national education system and should be treated equally and impartially.

“Although some of the SJKC land is owned by government, the school authorities have also raised fund from the Chinese community for school building or carried out expansion plan. Similarly, many SJKC in Chinese new villages are built on the government land, but they have not received full grant from the government,” the statement added.

Dong Zong stressed that it insisted that the government should revoke the School Extension and Rebuild Guidelines 1998, and to abolish the law outside the legislation of distinguishing between fully-aided and partially aided schools, and to make correction on serious errors of treating the government schools as fully-aided schools and the government-aided schools as partially aided schools.

Dong Zong urged all Chinese educationists to pay attention over this issue.

“The school board of directors which have decided to convert their school to fully-aided school must stop to do so immediately, and to hold discussion with Dong Zong as well as other education bodies so that appropriate decision could be attained,” it stressed.