Education Minister: No funds given to any independent or private type schools

KUALA LUMPUR: No fund has been distributed to any independent or private type schools, says Education Minister Datuk Dr Radzi Jidin.

He explained that the ministry was bound by certain scopes involving the allocations and assistance given to government and government funded schools.

"Firstly, the Education Ministry is fully responsible for government schools.

Secondly, for government funded schools, we will provide certain allocations such as emoluments to teachers, grant per capita, utilities, safety and cleanliness, and specific assistance.

"For independent Chinese schools, it is a private school and the Education Ministry has never distributed any allocation to any independent schools," he said in his winding up speech for his ministry under the 12th Malaysia Plan.

Ahmad Fadhli Shaari (PAS-PN) had asked the ministry to verify claims that RM15mil was allocated to 65 independent Chinese schools.

Radzi also revealed that under the 12th Malaysia Plan, the ministry had approved 30 projects with a cost of RM500.03mil for repairs for schools that had debilitated buildings.

He said that the cost of upgrade and repair of each debilitated school differs from one another in terms of complexity of scopes, preparedness of site and the location of schools.

He assured MPs that the ministry would soon provide the list of schools with debilitated buildings once it has been finalised.