Recently education minister Mahdzir Khalid confirmed reports that his ministry had restricted access to the annual RM50 million allocations due to a lack of funds and that if the matter was not resolved, the schools would have to “take what is available.”
His own deputy at the ministry, and MCA Youth chief, Chong Sin Woon declared MCA would not accept a partial disbursement of funds.
A Perak DAP leader lodged a police report on the “missing” allocations made under Budget 2016.
Then, Perak DAP publicity bureau chief Chong Zhemin said there were 800 Chinese primary schools which had not received a single sen from the allocation, despite the end of the year approaching.
Speaking to reporters at an event in Rawang today, Liow said the matter was being discussed from time to time with Najib. He said he would continue to follow up on it to ensure the allocations were disbursed.
Just yesterday United Chinese School Committees’ Association of Malaysia (Dong Zong) chairman Vincent Lau urged the government to provide more allocations to build more Chinese independent secondary schools.
Lau noted that Malaysia was right to have Chinese education in the country as it created more competitive students, especially since there was a greater use of Mandarin globally, due to China’s rise.