Adult pants, baby shoes for poor schoolchildren irks MP

A pair of long pants with a 38-inch waist and baby-sized shoes were among items received by students of two Kuala Lumpur Chinese-type primary schools as part of a back-to-school assistance programme run by the Federal Territories Foundation.

Kepong MP Lim Lip Eng claimed that while the foundation – the welfare arm of the Federal Territories Ministry – had carried out the programme on an annual basis, this year was "an epic failure" due to delays, insufficient numbers and inaccurate sizes for various items.

"Since two months ago I kept chasing the foundation for updates, but they said the items were still being made in China.

"Then three weeks ago, they still said it was not done, until this Wednesday, when they told me it will come on Thursday," he told Malaysiakini.

As such, Lim urged Federal Territories Minister Khalid Abdul Samad, the foundation's chairperson, to initiate a probe on what he claimed to be a waste of taxpayer money.

'Mistakes and delays'

Commenting further, the DAP lawmaker said there were 401 students from 11 primary schools in Kepong eligible to receive assistance, but he only received items for students in seven schools.

From the items received, Lim said he had personally delivered the uniform sets to more than 80 students at SJKC Kepong 1 and 2 yesterday, and that was when the size mistakes were discovered.

"One Standard 6 student received baby-sized black shoes. One student was so short, but his pants were so long, and another one got 38-inch waist pants.

"So of course the parents made noise," said Lim who stressed that such mistakes were unacceptable.

When contacted, SJKC Kepong 2 headmaster Wee Hiau Kee confirmed Lim's claims, adding that delivery of the assistance was also delayed as the new school term started three weeks ago.

"Some were too small, some were too big and some were totally wrong items, including a girl who received long pants (instead of a pinafore).

"When the parents tried the items on their children, they cannot use, so they said they would prefer to change," he said.

Wee added that the school was left with no choice but to collect the unusable items and return it to Lim's office, along with their feedback to the Federal Territories Foundation.

Malaysiakini has contacted the foundation for comments on the matter.

On Dec 17, Utusan Malaysia reported Khalid as saying that the back-to-school assistance programme would be extended to 20,000 primary schoolchildren from low-income families in the Federal Territories. 

"The RM3 million programme costs will see students receive aid in the form of a set of clothing, shoes and a school bag," he said.

In the first week of the current school term, The Star reported complaints from parents of schoolgoing children in Kuala Lumpur who had expected to receive the assistance before school opened on Jan 2, but forced to shop at the last minute due to the delay.

At the time, the foundation's corporate communications manager Ida Harlina Ikhwan Nasir issued a statement to confirm the delay, and attributed it to procedures involved in dealing with hundreds of schools in Kuala Lumpur.

She also assured that only the manufacturer with the best quality and pricing was chosen to fulfil its orders for a total of 20,000 students. - Mkini