For my son, when he grows up, this site will be my legacy for him. The decisions his mother and I made for him, to understand them, to learn from them and to lead a life without prejudice and to succeed in it on his own merit.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Only RM2, Mutilpy that by....

When schools run short of funds
By Terence Fernandez, Down2Earth, The Sun

OVER 10 years ago, as a reporter for The Malay Mail, I was part of a team which exposed a dubious instruction from the then Selangor Education Department director. He had directed all schools in the state to buy name tags for their students at a cost of RM2 each.

One of the issues was that some schools on their own had bought name tags for students through their co-operative societies, with the endorsement of their parent-teacher associations (PTAs). But no, they still had to buy these name tags – from a single supplier to “meseragamkan” (standardise) school uniforms in Selangor.

Granted, RM2 is not much but multiply that by 200,000 students and the company stood to earn RM400,000.

We discovered that the directive was from the state education director who neither consulted the Education Ministry nor obtained its approval. Worse, no tenders were called and the company was selected by the director. Why? Because we later discovered, one of his relatives was a director of the company supplying the tags.

When the story made the front page, there was hell to pay with voices of protests from parents, politicians, NGOs and even ministry officials. When we caught then education minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak in the lift, he was visibly furious with the scandal and promised action.

A few weeks after the story broke; the director was transferred to another department where he whiled away his time until retirement.

However, no further action was taken against him or the company whose directors laughed all the way to the bank. The only losers being the former state director and the thousands of parents who had to fork out RM2 each so that everyone in the neighbourhood, school and in between would know their children’s first names.

This was definitely something for the Anti-Corruption Agency to investigate but nothing was forthcoming.

If it had occurred today when people are less tolerant, when the enforcement agencies are under immense scrutiny and perhaps after the change in political climate, I trust there would have been a slew of prosecutions.

Now the reason for this trip down memory lane is because 10 years on, profiting from schoolchildren is still a million-ringgit business, with schools and schoolchildren being targets of profiteers.

Due to the high traffic flow and the large group of potential clients, we see billboards taking up space on school grounds; businessmen – from ice-cream sellers to apparel companies hawking their wares and telecommunications companies renting parking space.

Now when these agreements take off more often than not, someone in the school had given the green light and that person is the principal or headmaster.

My father who was a headmaster for three years said he had always had to chase profiteers out of his office – stationery salesmen, badge manufacturers, and the like. While he sometimes allowed them to make a presentation, he would show them the door the moment they said something like: “Cikgu ambil lah 10%” (You take 10%).

And I figure this is what is going on in some schools, when some headmasters aided and abetted by PTA chairmen put pecuniary interests above the welfare of children.

Granted that some schools are in dire need of funds and the profits are to be channelled back into the school, but taking the easy way out by taking children to ransom and digging into the parents’ pockets to buy useless items or things that can be bought at a fraction of the cost outside is not the answer.

Even allowing school land to be used by advertisers and companies needing to solve their parking woes is not in the best interest of the child – which should be the paramount consideration.

In the days when the private sector was less generous – and even now in some well-organised schools, the school with the children in tow would get together to organise fundraisers: be it through bake sales for a trip to the nation’s capital; funfairs to renovate the canteen; charity shows for a school building; or marathons to benefit under-privileged students.

With all the hype created, neighbourhood businessmen and personalities would start contributing and at the end of the day, you would end up raising more than you initially intended.

But these days, sadly the welfare of the children is not on the minds of some administrators in our education institutions. And like some of the parasites who prey on the millions of potential clients from kindergarten to Form Six, they too get drawn in by the capitalist talk.

It is time to end the exploitation of schoolchildren and for a clear direction from the Education Ministry for all activities to benefit school coffers be vetted and have the best interest of the child at heart. Otherwise, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission may have to investigate more civil servants.

As a former part-time teacher Terence has firsthand info as to how some of these dubious deals are signed. He is deputy editor special reports & investigations and can be reached at terence@thesundaily.com

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