NO school, I suppose, is pushing poor parents to pay the additional charges imposed but parents who can afford to pay should not complain and take advantage of this situation. Neither should the issue be politicised.

Parents in general should realise that fees incurred by schools are for the benefit of the students, provided the money collected is being effectively used and accounted for.

A school should not, for instance, collect money for computer classes and offer no computer classes to students. In this case, the money collected should be returned to parents.

It is absurd to perceive “free education” as meaning that parents do not have to pay a single sen to send their children to school. Additional charges in school, undoubtedly, are necessary for schools to have programmes such as sports and other social activities.

Undeniably, the government has done quite a lot to make education inexpensive for parents, compared with many other countries in this region.

Books are given free to students irrespective of parents’ income, all public examination fees abolished and school fees also done away with. The poor are also given free food and milk and tuition vouchers.

The only mistake the government has done, I suppose, is to give too many things free to the people. As a result, some are taking things for granted.

Is paying RM10 a month (the average RM120 parents have to pay for additional charges a year) for a child’s education too much for an average Malaysian?

Education is relatively cheap in this country but the real problem is our mindset. When things are doled out freely, we tend to appreciate it less. This perhaps is human nature. Even the rich manipulate to get things free from the government.

The system works better when services provided by the government to the public are not made free. When people have to pay a nominal sum to use public toilets, the money collected can be used to clean up these toilets.

When you need to slot in a coin to use a trolley at a supermarket, you will find that the trolley will be returned to its proper place after use.

When people are made to pay for electricity and water, the switches and taps will only be turned on when necessary.

When patients are made to pay for medicine dispensed by government hospitals, we would not see these costly drugs simply thrown away.

Unfortunately, it is the easy attitude we have over things that makes some of us complain over trivial issues such as the additional charges imposed by schools.

More than 90 per cent of Malaysians live above the poverty line and we see many still crowd shopping centres to spend freely and eat at posh restaurants.

So, the best business practice for schools would still be to not to give out things for free. The genuinely poor children, of course, need to be helped and there are many other ways to help them.

DR M.A. NAIR, Bandar Muadzam Shah

Source: NST – January 15, 2008