Sin Chew Daily

Selangor menteri besar Amirudin Shari announced that a new independent Chinese high school may be built in the state, while state exco Ng Sze Han confirmed on Tuesday that indeed there is one plot of land slated for the construction of an independent high school in the state’s urban planning.

Dong Zong president Tan Tai Kim has welcomed the state government’s announcement. At the same time, KL Chong Hwa Independent High School board director also confirmed that the school had received a land offer from the developer back in 2017 for the construction of a branch campus.

With a steady stream of good news coming in, be it the construction of new independent high schools (which may require an amendment to the existing Education Act 1996 which specifies that only 60 independent high schools are allowed in this country), or branch campuses, any measure that will allow students rejected by independent high schools due to insufficient classrooms to have the opportunity to study in an independent high school will have our full support.

Dong Zong’s statistics show that the number of students applying for admission to the eight independent high schools in Klang Valley have been overwhelming, and indeed about 50% of them, or more than 3,500 SJKC graduates, have been turned down due to insufficient classrooms. Further south in Johor Bahru, despite the construction of the new Foon Yew High School branch in Bandar Seri Alam, many applicants have been denied a place in independent high schools.

We don’t have to compare which among government schools, independent high schools or international schools are better than the others. Allowing the students to have the freedom to choose the type of schools they want to attend will have a lot of implications on these growing children.

Due to insufficient classroom facilities, many independent high schools in urban areas have to eliminate at least 5,000 applicants each year based on their examination results. It is cruel that even a child as young as 12 years old will have to score well in examinations in order to secure their future, and we believe this is not what we want to see how the country’s Chinese language education is headed to in future.

In view of that, it has become an issue of urgency that new independent high schools or at least branch campuses of existing schools are built as soon as possible.

Before SM Chong Hwa Kuantan was set up, how many 12-year-olds had to travel hundreds of kilometers to study in Klang Valley each year? What about places around Segamat in Johor, and the whole stretch of land from Kuantan all the way to Kuala Terengganu? And what about Sekinchan, Kuala Selangor and Sungai Besar, or from Seremban to Cheras?

We need to respect the right of our children to choose their preferred schools, and as such, there is an urgent need for the government to build new schools where they are most required.

We mustn’t let political maneuvers intervene in the development of independent high school education in the country. The existence of independent high schools is to help the government groom future leaders of this country but sadly, we still need to apply the laws of supply-demand economics to determine whether these schools should survive. Sure enough the schools will thrive where there are students, and will be wiped out by the natural selection process if there are not enough students to sustain their existence.

Former prime minister Najib Razak has said if the percentage of Chinese population keeps decreasing, the number of vernacular schools will likely go down in favor of national schools due to lack of a steady stream of new students, and that we should let the market forces decide which to stay, or go.

We don’t actually need to worry about the survival of independent Chinese high schools because people well versed in Mandarin, along with English and Bahasa Malaysia, can go a long way in this world, and Mandarin competency is definitely an added advantage in the job market today. Where there is the need, there is development. Simple as that!

Indeed, we have gone through a “dark” age in the development of independent Chinese high schools in this country. Under the Education Act 1961, Chinese schools in the country had to choose either to become government-subsidized national-type high schools, or independent high schools wholly funded by the local Chinese community.

For over ten years after that, many Chinese parents decided to send their children to national-type secondary schools having taken into consideration their own financial status, prospects after graduation and the importance of English and Malay competency at workplace. And this has resulted in a sharp decline in the number of students studying in independent high schools which at one point were on the verge of closing down.

From 1975, the medium of teaching at all government schools in the country was switched to Bahasa Malaysia. However, due to the efforts of local Chinese educationists, massive admission quotas of tertiary institutions in Taiwan, as well as enhanced education quality of independent high schools in this country, more and more people have been willing to attend these schools.

There are about 170 international schools in the country today, and one thing for sure is that new ones are being built each year. By comparison, after more than 60 years, the number of independent high schools in Malaysia is still around 60+2+1.

If the government is so generous in approving the construction of international schools, can it please put aside political considerations and allow new independent high schools to be built where they are most required?