6. Parents Still have To Bear Fees For Extra Facilities of School

Govt to set ceiling o additional payments imposed by schools: Education D-G

Although the government has decided to scrap school fees effective next year, parents will still have to pay for several additional facilities provided by the schools.
The additional payment would include for neckties, annual sports and computers, Education director-general Datuk Alimuddin Mohd Dom told reporters here yesterday.
Nevertheless, he said, the government would set a ceiling on the additional payment so as not to burden parents.
He said schools had been required to apply to the state education director if they wanted to impose additional payments on parents and the money could only be collected after their applications had been approved. The ceiling would differ according to categories, namely between primary and secondary schools, boarding and day schools, and urban and rural schools, he said.
Alimuddin also said that contributions to Parent-Teacher Associations (PTAs) were not compulsory and they were fixed by the associations themselves during their annual general meetings. He said schools had been advised to keep their PTA contributions at a reasonable level so as not to burden parents.
“Parents who cannot afford it can be exempted while the well-offs can contribute more. Parents with many children going to the same school may only pay for one,” he said.
On the textbook loan scheme, he said, it would benefit 5.7 million students compared to 4.5 million presently and involve an additional cost of RM128 million. The facility would not be extended to private school students and the ministry had told the publishers to ensure enough supply in the market for them, he said. Alimuddin also said that the ministry had issued a circular in 2000 banning the use of workbooks for Level One students and this directive was still in force.
The ministry had also urged the schools to implement flexible timetables to overcome the heavy bag problem, he said. -BERNAMA