Statement Released by Dong Zong
February 11, 2021
Mere Community Chest Appropriated to National-type High Schools
The MOE Should Honour Promises by Enforcing Fair Treatment
In respect to the Deputy Education Minister Mah Hang Soon’s release of RM1.6 million to sixteen earlier delisted national-type Chinese high schools which had relieved their financial burden temporarily, Dong Zong expresses its gratitude yet worries about their status and prospective progress. Herewith Dong Zong forwards this statement urging the government to listen to public voice by systematically appropriating all 81 national-type Chinese high schools.
It is evident that whether it was Barisan Nasional or Perikatan Harapan government, the above sixteen national-type high schools were appropriated consistently. Yet what is unacceptable to the Chinese community is the fact that the current Perikatan Nasional government simply delisted the aforementioned schools from receiving appropriation abruptly albeit holding the reign for not more than a year. Notwithstanding the effective efforts put in by the Deputy Education Minister office by making the Community Chest release the relevant appropriation, yet as a long-term consideration, it is not in any way guaranteed substantially. In the list pronounced by the Majlis Pembangunan SMJK Conforming Malaysia, currently there are 81 existing national-type Chinese high schools, inclusive of the above sixteen schools. Of which the status of those 78 time-honoured schools were pronounced clearly in an official notice dated 7 March 1997 by the Ministry of Education addressed to all directors of the state Education Bureau.
Unintelligibly, taking land ownership being transferred to the government as an excuse, the MOE categorised nine of the aforementioned schools as fully subsidised schools and eventually conformed seven of the schools as national high schools using branch or second school merger as justification thus ended up the awkward situation faced by the mentioned 16 national-type Chinese high schools.
In the sixties, many Chinese high schools accepted the transformation offer and conformed themselves into national-type high schools believing the promises made by the government: namely, the provision of sufficient appropriation and teachers, land provision for school construction, one thirds of the teaching time using Chinese as the medium of instruction as well as the assurance of the power and rights of the school boards. For the moment, being responsive to what the Deputy Education Minister Mah Hang Soon had claimed in the appropriation release ceremony online, all national-type Chinese high schools, including their branch schools, are similarly working towards one identical model, viz., to continuously disseminate Chinese culture owed to the painstaking efforts put in by their predecessors which has seen the production of many polymaths for the nation over the years. In this vein, the MOE needs to treat the 81 national-type high schools fairly in terms of their development and not to take the land entitlement or branch school status as excuse to enforce inadequate treatment towards the said sixteen schools.
Education is the foundation of nation making; for the advancement of a country, Dong Zong strongly believes the MOE should comply and honour the promises made sixty years ago when conforming Chinese high schools, let alone providing more attention and support promised to these schools amenable to the conformation in the first place.