The Hijacking of Public Education

I've been reading a spew of reports on the building of new Tamil and Chinese schools and the upgrading and repair of existing Tamil and Chinese schools. It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that these are election 'goodies' which are being announced on the even of a general election. The political scientist in me acknowledges that this is part and parcel of electoral politics in multi-ethnic Malaysia. But the liberal democrat in me thinks that politics should play as small as part as possible when it comes to educational policies and that education is too valuable to be used as an electoral tool.

Here are some recent newspaper reports regarding election 'goodies' in the form of Chinese and Tamil school - RM1.3 million for Kelantan Chinese schools, RM300,000 for Chinese schools in Sabah, the possibility of re-opening the Damansara Chinese school, RM20 million for 23 Tamil schools, the announcement for new and relocated Chinese schools.

While I understand the politics involved in the bargaining for more funding for Chinese and Tamil schools in the Malaysian context, I think that the debate on education should be on policy grounds, not on the allocation of money as a form of 'bribery', if you will. If the current government thinks that Chinese and Tamil schools are a good thing, then they should be willing to fund new Chinese and Tamil schools not just before an election but in between elections as well. It should be willing to increase the number of Chinese and Tamil schools and not just 'transfer' schools from one area to another.

Education is far too important of an issue to play 'politics' with and it is somewhat sad to see that this is being done on the eve of an election.