KUALA LUMPUR: Not having a clear breakdown of allocations for Chinese and Tamil schools will result in problems for the Education Ministry, says Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong.
"What is the formula for the allocation distribution as I previously asked?
"I served as deputy education minister from 2008 to 2013 and (initially) things were in a mess because we did not know how much was to be distributed to these schools.
"But since 2009, the breakdown of allocation was made very clear. However, now there isn't a proper breakdown," the Ayer Hitam MP said when debating Budget 2023 on education at the committee stage in the Dewan Rakyat on Tuesday (March 28).
Dr Wee said this in reference to the RM900mil set aside for maintenance of schools including vernacular, religious, missionary and government-assisted schools.
"I appeal to the ministry to address this issue as it will face a huge problem with these schools.
"Don't orphan these schools," he said.
He added that some 890 government-assisted schools and over 400 national-type schools would be affected by the lack of a distribution formula.
Dr Wee also questioned the shortfall as RM777mil was announced as expenditure allocation but only RM625mil was reflected in the budget.
"Why is there a shortfall of RM152mil? Was it dropped from the budget? This must be explained," he added.
The MCA president also took the opportunity to urge the ministry to approve the development of several new schools.
He said money had been raised and building plans approved in some cases but these new schools were put on hold since 2017 because there was no approval from the ministry.
He also asked the minister to intervene with regard to the placement of contract teachers in vernacular schools.
At present, he said over 1,000 teachers were affected and forced to wait for a call-up by the respective state education authorities to begin teaching.
