Communities should help in improving school conditions: Chong

KOTA KINABALU: The education ministry has called on the communities to rally their support towards improving the conditions of schools, especially in their areas, to enable the younger generation to pursue education in comfort.
Education Deputy Minister Datuk Chong Sin Woon said although the government had disbursed generous financial assistance for school maintenance, including special allocation to government-assisted schools, communities should also play a role in ensuring that development of schools was in tandem with time.
"Education is for all. So, all communities should come forward and help. We should not just wait for government funds to come in, to maintain the schools.
"Under the Education Blueprint, we also encourage schools to work together with the private sector and there are more and more companies coming in and willing to help and support schools financially, to speed up their maintenance and development," he told reporters after a cheque presentation ceremony involving a special allocation to national-type secondary schools (SMJK) here today.
In the ceremony, Chong, who is also MCA Youth chief, said the party would continue to support SMJKs nationwide.
"We (MCA) will continue asking the government to support SMJKs because they are all using national curriculum and the language of communication (in classes) is in Bahasa Malaysia ... except that they have additional classes for the Chinese language.
"So, they (SMJKs) are just like government schools and we should help them," he said.
A total of RM1.43 million was disbursed to eight SMJKs in Sabah - SMJK Tinggi Kota Kinabalu; SMJK Shan Tao, Kota Kinabalu; SMJK Lok Yuk, Likas; SMJK Lok Yuk, Kudat; SMJK Ken Hwa, Keningau; SMJK Chung Hwa, Tenom; SMJK Sung Siew, Sandakan and SMJK Tiong Hua, Sandakan.
Chong said the cheque presentation to the eight schools completed the disbursement of the RM15 million special allocation to 81 SMJKs nationwide this year. — Bernama