Bumi parents berate SJKC mgmt. boards for rueing “non-Chinese donate little to school dev’t fund”

 

MALAY parents are seemingly outraged at a revelation that the management boards of National-Type Chinese School a.k.a. SJKC are fussing over the high number of non-Chinese pupils taking advantage of the monetary contribution and allocation meant for the education well-being of Chinese pupils.

Apparently, the exposé on the Threads social media platform by one cikgujoe_sjkc claimed that while the population of non-Chinese pupils at SJKC “has reached almost 50%”, contribution (read “donation”) from non-Chinese parents has been “nowhere close” to that of Chinese parents.

This was shared former vocal maths teacher of SK Gombak 1-turned-social media influencer, Mohd Fadli Salleh, who summed up the disgruntlement as “don’t bring this culture of not wanting to contribute to SJKC”.

“Fuh, there’re now grouses by the SJKC (management) board community about non-Chinese parents who are calculative to contribute to their kids’ school,” remarked the icon teacher who left the teaching profession in February 2024 after some rough patches with the education authority in a Facebook post.

“Those who send their children to SJKC must possess the same mindset as them, not being calculative about learning and actively contributing to the school (monetary-wise).”

‘Free ride culture’ not welcome

A scrutiny of cikgujoe_sjkc revealed an insight into the role of the SJKC management board a.k.a. Lembaga Pengurus Sekolah – a dedicated governing body responsible for the maintenance, development and administration of SJKC which may or may not exist in the so-called Bahasa Malaysia-medium national schools (SK),

Since many SJKC are government-assisted, these boards lead fundraising efforts for expanding facilities, building halls and improving infrastructure such as for the development of new classrooms or technology projects.

Made up of affluent members of the Chinese society, these boards eventually act as a bridge between the school administration, the community and the Education Ministry (MOE) to maintain the unique character of Chinese education by ensuring high-quality facilities.

“Many out there don’t understand that aside from PIBG (Parents Teachers Association), there is this thing as school management boards. The PIBG rate is similar for all parents across the board,” enlightened the poster whose post is no longer accessible safe for the screenshots that have gone viral.

“But major contributions come from these boards. The point here is allowing the FREE RIDER culture of non-Chinese parents to enter SJKC. Meagre contributions don’t really contribute … so they’re right to feel unjust.

In fact, I’m disgusted to read of non-Chinese parents who sing praises of faculties at SJKC while condemning SK.

Don’t bring the culture of not keen to contribute to SKJC … the eldest kid went to SK while the rest entered SJKC then compare the state of adequate facilities at SJKC. This is despite not forking out a single sen towards that cause.”

‘Racist, discriminatory claim’

While most Chinese parents can resonate with the sentiment raised by cikgujoe_sjkc, some non-Chinese parents may be offended by the former’s discriminatory posturing.

At worst, the SJKC management board members are viewed as having behaved in a “racists” manner when “many Chinese businesses and wealthy businessmen are donating to SJKCs for the sake of seeking tax exemption”.

“Imagine if the billions of zakat (tithe) money from Muslims goes into SK or SMK (national secondary schools) schools, they can be as luxurious if not better than SJKC. But that’s not the case because there’re eight zakat beneficiaries who need to be given attention,” fumed one commenter.

They are racists; they forget that SJKC teachers are paid by the government or that the SJKC sit on government land.

They talk as if they’re the only ones who make big sacrifices. Look st SK where even Indian and Chinese pupils have never been alienated, never an issue of high number of non-Malay pupils or even their teachers grumbling (like cikgujoe_sjkc).

Interestingly, Malay parents with wide horizon tended to concur with cikgujoe_sjkc with one commenter sarcastically telling parents who are reluctant to do their bit “to return to SK where everything is free”.

Another parent concurred that it is timely to bring up this matter “to create awareness among Malay parents who often complain about making PIBG contribution”.

“At least we know how much they (the Chinese community) dominate the importance of education FOR their children. Let’s change our mentality for the sake of our children’s education,” she enthused with another seconded that “SK can also be equally good of every parent do their part”.

“No doubt, all government schools receive government assistance. It’s just that whether their facilities are in good shape or otherwise depend on whether they’re supported by community donations or not.”

Beyond cikgujoe_sjkc, it seems that the Threads platform is abuzz with another so-called SJKC teacher or parent who exposed how “poor the PIBG collection is when it comes to Malay parents (by paying the bare minimum)” yet justified that “no matter how small the contribution is, we still share all the good facility”.

Although a minority of Malay parents agree with his ‘frustration’ , many, including Chinese parents themselves, deemed his action as being racist. 

 - Focus Malaysia