Press Statement By Violet Yong:
The 2021 Budget tabled by Perikatan Nasional (PN) government in Parliament yesterday is a big let down to the Chinese Community particularly there is a big cut in allocation towards the Chinese education. It is a clear sign that this PN Government comprising of UMNO and PAS of which the Sarawak GPS Government fully supported is neglecting the Chinese education.
In the 2021 Budget, there is zero allocation to the Chinese Independent School. Unlike during Pakatan Harapan era, the federal government had allocated RM12 Million for year 2019 and RM15 Million for year 2020 to all the Chinese Independent School in Malaysia.
Next year, with zero allocation to the Chinese Independent School, PN Government is taking a giant step to oppress and suppress the development of the Chinese Education thereby ignoring the wishes and needs of the Chinese community in the education segment.
It is obvious to see that the move by the PN Government is trying to paralyse the Chinese Education in particular through the budgetary cut so as to make the schools difficult to survive.
Let us not forget there are still legal suits taken up by those who supported PN and still pending in court of Malaysia to ban vanercular schools and declare them illegal which include the Chinese schools.
I would say that the road ahead for Chinese Education is bleak and might even face the consequences of closing down.
The 2021 Budget also doesn’t specifically categorize the respective amount of allocation to be given to the various types of vernacular schools in the country. I am worried the portion of allocation given to Chinese vernecular school will be reduced. At least under the PH 2019 and 2020 Budgets, the federal government stated expressly that there will be RM50 million annually to be given to all the Chinese vernacular schools.
Education is under the purview of the federal government. It is only right and fair for the federal government to take care of all types of schools through allocation of sufficient funding for development, repairs or maintenance. But unfortunately, it is not the case for Budget 2021.
ADUN for Pending
Violet Yong
