Before talent enters the workforce, it takes root in the classroom.
Schools lay the foundation, nurturing skills, sparking potential and giving young minds room to flourish.
Recognising the importance of this, the Selangor government allocates funding in its annual budgets to support students throughout their schooling years, especially those from underserved communities.
Beyond supporting the needy and vulnerable, the government has stepped up efforts to raise the quality of schools across the board.
But improving the learning environment is a shared responsibility, with public-private partnerships also playing an important role.
Malaysian Association for Education (MAE) secretary Hamidi Mookkaiyah Abdullah (pic) said such partnerships can benefit schools in many ways, including by providing additional resources and supporting infrastructure repairs and maintenance.
“Partnerships between the private sector and schools should be encouraged and welcomed,” he said, noting that the Education Ministry has also encouraged such collaboration.
This is particularly relevant in Selangor, an industrial and business hub with 947 schools serving over 986,400 students.
Hamidi added that public-private partnerships can help address overcrowded schools.
One way would be for developers to include primary and secondary schools in newly developed townships.
He said secondary schools, in particular, are facing overcrowding as the number of feeder primary schools grows.
“New townships have grown, but there is poor planning, as there are neither primary nor secondary schools available,” he said, citing townships such as Bandar Puteri Klang, Bandar Bayuemas and Bandar Parklands.
Hamidi also said school heads and parent-teacher associations should be given greater flexibility to engage with the private sector and streamline the process of establishing such partnerships.
“Schools should be empowered to forge relationships with the private sector to bring benefits to the school in many different aspects,” he said, adding that certain criteria would naturally need to be met to ensure students truly benefit from such partnerships.
