National schools ‘far behind’ vernacular ones, says Umno rep

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 27 — A Malacca Umno delegate urged Putrajaya today to allocate more funds for national schools, claiming that such schools are far behind their vernacular counterparts.

Mustafa Musa also called for Chinese and Tamil language subjects to be made mandatory in national schools in a bid to move towards single-stream education before closing other schools, in an apparent reference to Chinese and Tamil vernacular education.

“Then there’s no reason to say that national schools are weak. So, we strengthen our schools first before we close people’s schools,” said Mustafa at the Umno annual general assembly.

Unlike national schools, vernacular schools do not receive full federal funding.

Instead, they are partially-funded and must depend on other sources of revenue — usually private donations — to finance their operations.

Controversy over vernacular schools erupted earlier this year when Petaling Jaya Utara Umno deputy division chief Mohamad Azli Mohamed proposed to discuss abolishing Chinese-medium schools at the party’s general assembly, claiming the schools to be hotbeds for racism and anti-establishment sentiments.

However, Prime Minister and Umno president Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced during his 2015 Budget speech that Chinese and Tamil vernacular schools have been allocated RM50 billion each, a move that is seen to ensure that the schools are here to stay.

On October 12, Najib also told MCA members at its 61st AGM that his government will continue to uphold the right to mother tongue education, saying that Chinese vernacular schools or SJK (C) are “already enshrined in the Constitution and the law” and are part of the National Education Blueprint 2013-2025.

Malacca delegate Mustafa also called on the government today to increase allocations for Umno states.

“When I campaigned in the 13th general election, I saw that houses with Umno and Barisan Nasional (BN) flags were old houses and the cars with Umno flags were Malaysian cars. The Mercedes cars and bungalows wave no flags. In fact, they don’t even want to open the door,” he said.