NGO says 100 Chinese schools ignoring ministry order on computer classes

NGO leader Ronnie Wong (blue shirt) says some Chinese primary schools are forcing students to pay a fee for computer classes during school hours.

PUTRAJAYA: An NGO today claimed that Chinese primary schools in several states are “forcing” pupils to take and pay for computer classes during school hours, although such classes are to be held only after school hours.

Ronnie Wong, who heads Persatuan Jaringan Ibubapa Pencinta Pendidikan Bahasa Zhonghua, said the education ministry, in a circular last April, had barred Chinese primary schools from conducting computer classes during school hours.

But, he said, the practice was still continuing in certain states and pupils were being forced to pay RM50 a month for the classes.

“For us, charging a fee for classes within school hours is against the law. The ministry has to explain why no action has been taken against these schools,” he said outside the ministry building here after submitting a memorandum to the minister.

Last June, Education Minister Maszlee Malik said Chinese-medium schools had been instructed to stop computer classes during school hours, as it contravened several clauses under the Education Act.

Maszlee said computer classes should only be conducted after school hours.

Chinese education activist Edward Neo (white shirt, left) holding a newspaper cut-out of an education ministry statement that computer classes cannot be held during formal school hours.

The group’s adviser, Edward Neo, said they had received complaints from the parents of pupils from over 100 schools across Malaysia on the computer class issue.

“Parents told us that computer classes are included in their children’s timetable along with other core subjects,” he said.

A parent known as Lee, who has children studying at a Chinese primary school in Kuala Lumpur, claimed that the computer classes were repetitive of other Science and Information Technology subjects taught in schools.

“My children told me they are bored attending the classes and were only taught basic computer functions and programmes like Microsoft Word.”

Lee added that it was unfair to force parents to pay extra for something that their children had already learned as part of the school’s core subjects. - FMT