The Bagan DAP parliamentary liaison committee, in its annual general meeting, passed a resolution to urge the minister to end the discrimination against vernacular schools by the previous administration.
According to the committee, currently, development funds allocated to vernacular schools were not on par with the student population in these schools.
“Development funds for vernacular schools cannot be less than the reduced funding given by the previous Perikatan Nasional-led (PN) government.
“The funds must at least be equal to that given by the Barisan Nasional (BN) government in 2018,” the committee said in a statement.
This year, the Penang government allocated RM9 million to Chinese national-type primary, secondary, independent, and mission schools, a chief minister’s office coordinator on Chinese schools revealed. There is no data on how much federal funds these schools received from Putrajaya, the same office said.
The committee also called for the government to increase development funding allocations for all schools in Penang to make up for the past neglect by the previous government due to unexplained reasons.
The committee then passed a resolution asking Fadhlina to urgently address the shortage of teachers in all Penang schools, especially for Bahasa Melayu, English, and STEM subjects.
It also announced a new lineup for the parliamentary liaison committee, naming Bagan MP Lim Guan Eng as chair, with Sg Puyu assemblyman Phee Syn Tze as secretary.
Phee Boon Chee was named treasurer, Senator Dr RA Lingeshwaran was appointed as organising secretary, while Bagan Jermal assemblyman Chee Yeeh Keen was made publicity secretary.
In September, deputy education minister Lim Hui Ying announced that all 885 partially federally-funded Chinese schools nationwide would be granted RM50,000 for maintenance purposes.
However, if the amount applied for by the school is higher than RM50,000, then the additional funding would be decided by the ministry on a case-by-case basis, she was reported to have said, according to Oriental Daily.