PETALING JAYA: Instead of making the rich pay to enter top, heavily-funded schools, it is better for the government to ensure that the poor are guaranteed a good education, educationists say.
Malaysian Association for Education secretary Hamidi Mookkaiyah Abdullah said these schools, meant to create a level playing field for underprivileged children to compete academically, are now taking in children from the elite group who have access to many facilities at home.
“Taxpayers’ money must not be channelled carelessly. It’s discriminatory if you deprive children from poor households of opportunities in education,” he said.
The underprivileged, he added, have been deprived as their places are taken up by the rich.
“Placement in these schools should be made solely based on the household income of families.
“Top schools were established to help good students from middle and lower income families.
“There is nothing wrong with making parents pay for their children’s education if they are in a position to afford it,” he said, while stressing the need for these schools to be inclusive and welcoming of all races.
Yesterday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said Budget 2025 is expected to see a reassessment of subsidy allocations, including in the education sector, that have benefited the ultra-rich and the wealthy.
He said forms of leakages, including children of the wealthiest groups who are attending science secondary schools and (those) heavily subsidised by the government, should be stopped, and the funds be used to help the poor.
Educationist Tan Sri Dr T. Marimuthu said there needs to be a clear and strict admission policy to ensure that only those from low-income households can apply to such schools.
A form of positive discrimination, such a move would ensure that underprivileged students are given a fair chance to compete with their wealthier peers when it comes to access to quality education, he said.
“If a school is meant for all, then it would be a discrimination to deny entry to rich children but science secondary schools and those heavily subsidised by the government are meant for the poor and middle-class families,” the former Universiti Malaya professor of education, said.
Stressing that education is the only way for the underprivileged to uplift their well-being, Parent Action Group for Education (PAGE) chairman Datin Noor Azimah Abdul Rahim said reassessing subsidies, including for elite education, is in line with reforms aimed at subsidies for the needy.
“Therefore, parents who attempt to enrol their privileged children in these top government funded schools should be politely turned away.
“Parents should be proud to be able to fund their children’s education without relying on the government,” she added.
