Be fair to Chinese and Tamil schools.

Part 3: Speech by M.Kula Segaran, MP for Ipoh Barat and DAP National Vice Chairman in Parliament while debating the Royal Speech on Wednesday, 14thMarch, 2012

Be fair to Chinese and Tamil schools.

There are hundreds of teaching jobs vacant in both Chinese and Tamil schools. Although the school session has begun in January2012 yet theses vacancies have not been filled up.

Yesterday I posed a formal question on this issue and the answer given was vague as the Ministry refused to divulge the actual figure. Why the Ministry refused to do so?

We know the real reason is that little attention is paid by the ministry to fill these positions. This shortage is very severe in many schools and has existed for many months ago yet no serious and specific action has been done to fill up these positions. At the end of the day the students in these schools are the victims and suffer from the lack of teachers.

Further a serious discrepancy in the amount spent for our children in school is very glaring.

For example in the 9^th Malaysia Plan the amount spent were as follows

In the 9 th Malaysian Plan, the schools were given the following allocation:-

- National schools - RM 33.30 per month per student

- Tamil schools - RM 10.55 per month per student

- Chinese schools - RM 4.50 per month per student

Why this discrimination? Will it any different in the 10thmalaysia Plan ?

An urgent new mind set is required to ensure that both issues of monies spent on school going children and the lack of teachers are addressed.

Recently the PM announced that 6 new Tamil schools would be built. Will the building of these new schools really take off or it is only a political rhetoric?

When I put in a question on this yesterday, the answer given was that it is in the planning stage.