PETALING JAYA: The education sector remains the largest beneficiary of the revised Budget 2023, with a total of RM70.5bil – RM55.2bil for the Education Ministry and RM15.3bil for the Higher Education Ministry.
The revised budget is 5% more than the RM67.1bil allocation in Budget 2022 but less than the RM70.7bil budget tabled by former prime minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s administration on Oct 7 last year.
While the Education Ministry received RM2.6bil more than the RM52.6bil allocated in the previous budget, Parent Action Group for Education Malaysia (Page) chairman Datin Noor Azimah Abdul Rahim said the amount would not be enough unless it was utilised efficiently and effectively without any diversion to cronies and subcontractors.
“Every ringgit must be spent on the students. We hope a substantial portion of the budget will go to teacher retraining as students need to be empowered for the digital economy,” she said.
A total of RM885mil, which would benefit 940,000 students under the Supplementary Food Plan and Preschool Food Aid, said Azimah, was “most generous”.
“Now students need not go hungry at the start of the day. With a full stomach, students can focus better on lessons and be more productive and attentive in class,” she added.
Educationist and former Universiti Malaya professor Tan Sri Dr T. Marimuthu said the allocation to upgrade, maintain and build disabled-friendly amenities and open halls for school assemblies would boost student achievements.
“Based on research, a significant 8% to 10% of the achievement outcome is attributed to the quality of the infrastructure,” he said.
While the upgrading of the 380 dilapidated schools is welcomed, National Union of the Teaching Profession president Aminuddin Awang noted that more than 10,000 schools were in need of maintenance.
“We have received complaints from headmasters that it is very difficult to get funding for school maintenance,” he said, while calling for more funding to be channelled to replacement teachers and myStep at the District Education Offices level.
“Schools nowadays have difficulty getting replacement teachers when the permanent teachers go on maternity leave or long sick leave. This results in the existing teachers having to take on more responsibilities,” he added.
In light of digitalising education, Aminuddin requested that teachers be given a subsidy for Internet plans as they needed data for their online work.
The 50,000 laptops to be provided to schools and education institutions under the ministry, said new teacher Muhamad Syahmi Haziq Hamdan, would be a great help to educators.
“Providing laptops is most helpful as rural schools lack equipment.
“New teachers like me still cannot afford to buy our own equipment, so this will enable us to better carry out teaching and learning activities and complete school projects successfully,” he said.
Muhamad Syahmi added that he hopes Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim would make good on his promise to deliver the laptops by the third quarter of the year.English teacher Ai’da Mohamed said the incentive should focus more on rural schools.
“We need more than just the laptops. It would be great to focus on improving Internet capabilities as we use that a lot now,” she added.
Melaka Action Group for Parents in Education (Magpie) chairman Mak Chee Kin said it was important that poor and needy schools were being prioritised, but the government must do away with unnecessary bureaucracy in the disbursement of funds.
“Money must be channelled straight to the schools instead of through the state education departments.
“Better still, engage direct contractors for better cost savings,” he said.
