BN can pay teachers more but it prefers to pay APCO

The Education Minister’s recent statement that a RM500 special monthly allowance for teachers as proposed by Pakatan Rakyatwill cause the country to go bankrupt, is regrettable.

Pakatan Rakyat has studied carefully the financial impact of the proposal. We took into account that there are 537,221 positions in the education services, covering personnel in the management of the ministry (24,153), the development of education policies (4,059), teachers and school operations (493,399) and lastly the development of teacher’s professionalism (10,610).

The reform of our education system must involve every level and function in the education service, from the development of policies to the actual learning and teaching process in the classroom. Therefore, Pakatan Rakyat’s proposal for the special allowance has included every personnel involved in the education service to ensure a wholesale reform of the education sector.

This will cost the nation RM3.2 billion per annum. This amount is relatively small when compared to the excesses of UMNO/Barisan Nasional in managing the taxpayers’ money.

For example, the cost for the Prime Minister’s international trips so far (RM8.7 million) could have paid for the special allowance for 1,450 teachers. Payments of RM77 million made to APCO for 2009 can pay for the special allowance for 12,800 teaching personnel, equivalent to the total workforce entrusted to train our teachers. The recently disclosed cost of setting up and running of PEMANDU, involving a sum of RM131 million (including RM66 million paid to consultants) could have paid for the entire personnel managing our education service in the Ministry of Education.

These are examples of small-change excesses. The amount thrown away each year for mega wastages such as the RM19 billion gas subsidies to the cronies, costs for various bail-outs such as the RM6 billion bail-out of Bakun; and the leakages due to corruption and shoddy procurement practices estimated at RM28 billion can well pay for the meagre RM3.2 billion needed for the special allowance.

Therefore, it is not about affordability. It is about political will and UMNO/Barisan Nasional’s priority to restore the quality of education in the country.

The painful truth is education was never high in UMNO/Barisan Nasional’s list of priorities. The issue of deteriorating quality of education has been discussed for a good one decade, yet there has not been any concrete proposal to acknowledge the teacher’s central role in maintaining a quality education. No effort has been made to increase the attractiveness of the teaching profession to lure our best talents.Pakatan Rakyat’s special allowance is the first step towards promoting the teaching profession as a career of choice at par with other professions such as doctors, engineers and accountants.

Yesterday, the Prime Minister was reported to have agreed to the setting up of a special consultative body to resolve long outstanding issues plaguing the teaching profession. The request for such a body had been made by CUEPACS since 2002 – but it was acted by UMNO/Barisan Nasional only afterPakatan Rakyat made a clear pledge to implement concrete and practical steps to upgrade the teaching profession. It took UMNO/Barisan Nasional eight, long years before lifting a finger after the issue was brought to the national discourse by Pakatan Rakyat.

A competent government would not have managed the nation’s education service in this manner. The responsibility to look after the welfare of the teachers is an inherent function of a government. Thus, it should not wait for a cue from its political opponent before it decides to act for the betterment of the teachers.

Pakatan Rakyat believes that the teacher’s welfare is central to the efforts to upgrade the quality of education in Malaysia. Therefore, the RM3.2 billion special allowance proposed will be a good investment for the country’s future.

(Anwar Ibrahim is the Opposition Leader and de-facto head of Pakatan Rakyat)