Photo Credit: sinchew.com.my
Sin Chew Daily, August 12, 2015
Kuala Lumpur, Aug 11 – Deputy Education Minister Chong Sin Woon said the multi-stream education system stood firm since independence until now and had never been changed, MCA would remain steadfast and not allow this to be altered.
In an interview with Sin Chew Daily, he said when he knew about his appointment as deputy Minister of Education, in an hour’s time, he went to see MCA president Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai to seek the latter’s advice.
President advises him on two things
He said the president advised him on two things: (1) to stand firm on the multi-stream education system; (2) to monitor closely and solving the problem of shortage of teachers in Chinese primary schools (SJKC), and also to brief the party president on the progress from time to time.
“Education Minister Mahdzir Khalid also agreed that after implementing for a long period it is no longer possible to switch the multi-system education system to a single-stream system,” he added.
He said the aspiration of all MCA members and the Chinese community as a whole was the same, the post of deputy Education Minister was too important to Chinese community, and MCA must have someone in this system to deal with the administrative issues.
“It is especially so for issues regarding the Chinese education, from primary up to secondary school level; over the last two years it was indeed very inconvenient without MCA’s representative in the Education Ministry,” he said.
He admitted that he would definitely feel the pressure when MCA was reappointed the post of deputy Education Minister after the lapse of two years, MCA president and deputy president were very concerned about the post.
He said the directors as well as the members of the Parents and Teachers Association (PTA) of the SJKC throughout the country are all MCA’s local grass roots leaders, they would reflect to the MCA central leaders on problems facing by the Chinese education whenever the central leaders visited their area.
“Now that MCA has got back the post of deputy Minister of Education, I would be able to hand in the problems reflected by the MCA grass roots leaders directly to the party central committee and Education Ministry for them to deal with,” he added.
Reprocess data on SJKC teachers
Chong Sin Woon said he sincerely hope that there is an overall planning to really solve the problem of shortage of teachers in SJKC, this is the responsibility of the Education Ministry.
He said before this there were many MCA deputy Education Ministers trying very hard to solve the problem of shortage of teachers in SJKC.
He said when MCA deputy president Datuk Wee Ka Siong became the deputy Education Minister in 2008, there was a shortage of 4,000 teachers in SJKC, but now the number has been reduced to 800.
“In fact, with the cooperation of Chinese education bodies, MCA has been able to solved most of the problems,” he said.
Meeting with SJKC inspectors next week
Chong Sin Woon stressed that he had paid much attention to issues pertaining to teachers in SJKC, and would called for a meeting with all SJKC inspectors throughout the country to listen to their full briefing.
He opined that the main reason why the shortage of teachers in SJKC could not be solved until now was because of the disparity on the statistics of the teachers.
“The same problem is repeating every year, the Education Ministry has its own statistics on teachers, and the United Chinese Schools Teachers’ Association (Jiao Zong) has its own data, the disparity is not minimal but a big gap.
“Why the problem could not be solved over a decade or more, I’m also very curious, I shall put in every effort to work out the statistics and it must be a very scientific statistics,” he added.
He stressed that the problem of teachers was the result of the vast disparity of the statistics, and therefore it must be reviewed, and the statistics of Jiao Zong must be checked against the statistics provided by the SJKC inspectors nationwide so that a true figure could be obtained.
Continue with the roundtable discussions
Chong Sin Woon said he would continue to deal with the SJKC teacher’s problem through roundtable negotiation.
He felt that the SJKC teacher’s problem would be solved more effectively through the roundtable negotiation which comprises of representatives from various Chinese education bodies as well as the officers from relevant ministries and it was recognized by the cabinet.
He stressed that the “SJKC teachers data base” set up by the MCA Chinese Education Consultative Committee together with various Chinese education bodies would continue to function.
He said the problem of inadequate fund allocated for temporary teachers of SJKC was largely related to the statistics on SJKC teachers.
As an example, he said at the beginning of the year if the Education Ministry confirmed that SJKC only short of 300 teachers, then it would only allocate budget for the salary of 300 teachers.
“However, the problem arises when the figures do not tally with the actual situation, moreover, the budget allocation had been made and therefore, it is unable to make extra allocation to issue more warrant for the hiring of temporary teacher,” he explained.
He said under such circumstances, directors and the PTA of the SJKC would have to bear the cost of hiring temporary teachers, this would of course cause much resentments.
Chong Sin Woon said the problem of teacher shortage not only happened in SJKC, national schools were also facing with the same problem.
However, he said, as the Chinese community has always emphasized on education, if there is any shortage of teacher in the school, they would immediately look into it, board of directors and PTA would try their very best to raise money to solve the problem lest the learning progress of the students would be affected.
He stressed that in order to solve this problem the survey data on the teacher must be in detail and should include the number of teachers who are going to retire and awaiting delivery, and the Education Ministry should also prepare to issue extra warrant to hire temporary teachers in case of emergency.
Sending teachers to SJKC according to number of graduates from institutions
Chong Sin Woon said the main reason of the long due problem of teacher shortage in SJKC is the labelling of teachers.
He said when Wee Ka Siong assumed the post of deputy Education Minister in 2008, he had set up the school holiday teachers training courses and teachers training lessons for the university graduates, with all these efforts many related problems had been solved.
But he stressed that according to the Education Ministry’s overall planning, teachers training institutions would be the main source for teachers. The student intakes years ago had graduated last year, now they have been teaching in various schools.
He said he would plan according to the number of graduates of the teachers training institutions and send them to SJKC.
Should not abolish the mechanism of temporary teachers
Chong Sin Woon felt that although it is nice to hear about the abolition of the mechanism of temporary teachers, in reality it is not feasible.
He said every year there would be headmasters and teachers retired, the mechanism of temporary teachers is therefore needed, but the temporary teachers could not be used as the main mechanism to solve the problem of teacher shortage.
On question whether the Education Ministry should reopen the school holiday teachers training course, Chong Sin Woon said he would seriously study the proposal.
He said this would go back to the issue of the teachers’ data statistics, a more “scientific” approach should be used to do the calculation.
He pointed out that the Education Ministry would count the number of teachers due to graduate in September this year and next year; if they are still not enough then he would bring up the matter regarding the setting up of teachers training courses during school holidays to the minister.
“It is not impossible to reopen the courses,” he said.
Meeting with school inspectors to gather data of students
Chong Sin Woon said during the meeting with national SJKC inspectors next week, he would compile the number of SJKC students throughout the country in last five years to verify how many SJKC have got no source of new students and also how many areas were facing with SJKC that were filled to capacity and required construction of new schools.
He stressed that all these data must also be very clear to enable more efficient planning on the construction of new school or relocation of SJKC.
He said many headmasters of micro SJKC would often wait until their school was left with three or four students before report to the SJKC inspector or Education Ministry and asked for relocation of school.
“Before the relocation of school was made, the Education Ministry needs to find a suitable place and this is time consuming, after that the ministry would then prepare the budget of construction of new school or relocation of school for approval,” he added.
He said SJKC could not be blamed for lack of new students, the problem is caused by migration.
He hoped Jiao Zong, Malaysian National Headmasters Union and board of directors of the SJKC in different areas could provide him with the latest information and suggestion, as this would greatly help him in arranging for the relocation and construction of new SJKC.
Discuss with minister on the revelation of KSSR examination module
Chong Sin Woon said he had discussed with the Education Minister on several issues in relation to SJKC including when to reveal the examination module of the Primary School Standard Curriculum (KSSR).
He said the Education Minister had also realized the importance of the issue and had drawn up a time table for the education director-general to deal with.
“During the ministry’s briefing session, I had discussed with the education secretary-general and relevant officials over the issue, the minister promised to draw up a time table on it and would reveal its examination module,” he added.
Chong Sin Woon also felt that earlier on there was some misunderstandings on whether the state affected by the flood would have to replace the lost schooling days, in fact it is rather a simple issue to deal with, he could not understand why the issue had been made complicated.
He said during the ministry’s briefing session, he had suggested that the education director-general should issue a circular to explain the whole matter and that would immediately solve all the problems.
He said the minister had also agreed with his suggestion and directed the secretary-general to issue a circular to all state education departments informing them of the decision not to replace the lost schooling days. The issue was solved immediately.
Government should bear the schools utility bill
On the subsidies for electricity and water bills of SJKC, Chong Sin Woon said MCA hoped that eventually the utility bills would be shouldered by the government.
He opined that if the government could not afford to bear the schools’ utility bills then it is useless talking on the smart schools or computerized teaching method.
Ensure SJKC problems be conveyed smoothly
Chong sin Woon said he would make sure that the problems revealed by the SJKC headmasters be passed to the Education Ministry so that prompt action could be taken.
He said earlier the headmasters were forced to turn to the media because a lot of problems were unable to be conveyed to the Education Ministry, and because of this they received verbal warning from state education department.
“If what is going on at lower levels is made known to higher levels, then the headmaster of SJKC would not have to go through the media to make complain,” he added.
Nevertheless, he felt that the complaints made by the school headmasters are all real, and the Education Ministry should look into the problems and not trying to cover up the grievances.
Appointed deputy minister not because of “obedient”
“If the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib wanted to discriminate against those who hold different views, then he should not have appointed me as the deputy minister; and if someone said that my appointment was due to my ‘obedience’, this is not correct,” he said.
Deputy Education Minister Chong Sin Woon said earlier he had held different views against the government, ministers and even Umno, this had caused Umno to be rather dissatisfied with him, but Najib still appointed him as the deputy minister, it served to prove that Najib was not a person who would discriminate against those who hold different views.
“I would not become silence after being appointed as a deputy minister who is also a member of the national administrative team, I shall continue to voice out on political issues, of course if I raise objection it must be with reason,” he added.
Concentrate on education matter
In the interview with Sin Chew Daily, he said as the Chinese community’s expectations on the deputy Education Minister are high, and also it is a post with many works to be done, so he would spend most of his time in the education ministry, and not on political issues just like before.
“Perhaps Najib needs younger generations to involve in nation building and thus he appointed me as the deputy minister. While my counterparts in Parliament told me that one of the reasons I was appointed deputy minister might be because I used to take part in the debate quite often in Dewan Negara and dare to criticize some of the government policies,” he said.
He said although he had never contested in any of the general elections, he would work very hard as a deputy minister to show that he is there to do things, rather than to be an official.
“I had never been a candidate in any general election, therefore the so called ‘back door deputy minster’ notion is not correct. Senator is part of the Parliamentary system, and also a member of the democratic mechanism, all parliamentary bills would have to pass through the lower and upper house to be effective. Hence, it is not fair to criticize the senators,” he said.
Recruit professionals through Dewan Negara
He opined that Najib had successfully absorbed the appropriate candidates to become members of the administrative team; he had also been able to recruit many professionals including bankers and entrepreneurs through the appointment of senator.
“This is the mechanism under the Constitution, people should not belittle the normal procedure,” he stressed.
He understood the expectations of the Chinese community, and also his limitations, thus he would try his best to accomplish his job.
“Many elders told me to try my very best and be worthy of the Chinese community, and that should be enough, the merits and demerits are up to others to gauge, what I should do is to work hard,” he said.
Should publicly declare the RM2.6 billion donation
On issues regarding 1MDB and the RM2.6 billion political donations, Chong Sin Woon said the issues had caused Barisan Nasional (BN) to face with acute confidence crisis, therefore the government should disclose the true story publicly and promptly.
“It is very difficult to resort to the delay tactic on issue regarding the political donation with the hope that people will gradually forget about it, in this era this method is no longer practical,” he said.
He felt that the government should honestly reveal the matter in order to win the trust of the people.
Make good use of resources to save the economy
“The national administrative power and resources are still in the hand of the government; whether it is a good government is up to us (the government) to prove, if we remain stagnant and have not taken drastic action to save the nation’s economic development and the livelihood of the people, then no matter how we explained it would still be political version only,” he said.
He stressed that if the general election is to be held in two years’ time, the BN government still has two years to do a great cause in improving the living of the people, this would be another important steps for BN to get itself out of the predicament.
Must change the rigid policy
“At the time when ringgit is weak, national development is facing with challenges, the implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST), people’s livelihood are in trouble, if BN government is able to implement more good policies, it will help the government to regain the support of the people, and also the government must have the courage to deal with the problems faced by the people,” he said.
He admitted that in the Education Ministry, there were many policies set long time ago or ‘unwritten rules’, if these could not be changed then it is meaningless to join the Education Ministry, as a deputy minister who represented the people, he would have to change all the rigid policies, so that people could feel the change.
“Just like the dress code of the government department, the government should not have allowed such incidents to happen repeatedly, I rather prefer to accept the explanation given by the former Prime Minister Tun Mahathir who had said that the dress code is for the government servants and not for the public to follow, the public came to the government office for the service of government servant, they only need to dress up, what he said is correct,” he added.
He also said the government or leaders should make fast decision on issues to regain the confidence of the public.
Political parties need political donations
On political donations, Chong sin Woon said both sides of the political divides were very clear that without the political donations, they would not be able to operate. It needs to have true courage to declare openly the identity of the contributors; the contributors would normally request not to have their personal identity disclosed, unless we follow the practice of the US to make it a legislative regulation.
“The influence of the political donation issue is very wide, even there are voices of discontentment among MCA party members and grass roots, because when people talking about political donations, they would think of corruption. Only those who don’t understand politics would have the impression of corruption, in fact donation is to show support to the political party or person, only politician understand this,” he added.
Gives importance to the Youth
MCA Youth morale rises
Chong sin Woon said ever since his appointment as deputy minister, the morale of MCA Youth had greatly been boosted and was full of strength, this showed that political party and government should give opportunity to the younger generation as this could ignite the hope of the youngsters on political party and the government, which brought out a message to show that the government could rely on the younger generation.
“With the platform, apart from approaching the students more conveniently, it also allowed me to introduce more decent projects to the young people to encourage them to be creative and to make good use of their ability, resources and time,” he stressed.
Review of social media freedom
On question of the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia’s proposal to amend the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, Chong Sin Woon reassured that the government would not close down the social media but would review their freedom, especially those who used false account to smear others and disturbed society.
“During the last general election, online media had reported that there were 200,000 Bangladesh voters, almost all the supporters of Pakatan Rakyat believed the report, they came out to arrest the ghosts, and some of the Chinese who looked like the foreign workers were detained by them. If a country allows this kind of rumors to happen frequently, it would disrupt the people and have adverse effect on social stability and economic development,” he said.
He felt that the anonymous account must be regulated, especially with the emergence of the cyber bullying and human flesh search engine.
“It is commendable to make good use of the internet, but never abuse it. Nowadays the social media had almost become the hired writer’s routine work, therefore when it was announced that we have the most number of facebook users, we all felt very proud, in fact most of the accounts were false accounts,” he said.
He also said our young people had actually wasted lots of times on hand phone, engaging themselves in smearing, scolding and rude words which might affect the social stability such as the Low Yat Plaza incident.
Original Source: 張盛聞：關注解決華小師資問題‧捍衛多元教育