Come the month of January each year, parents are burdened with expenses to provide education for their children. The amount needed keeps increasing every year. This includes the money required for school uniforms, attire for sports and co-curricular activities, shoes, transport, books, tuition fees and food. The amount needed may come up to hundreds of ringgit per child , which is beyond the means of an average wage earner with a number of school-going children.

The government did the right thing in coming up with the text book loan scheme in all schools to ease the financial burden of the people. It's a noble intention towards providing the all-important education that is vital for its citizens.

According to this scheme, parents with an income of RM1,000 and more are not eligible for free textbooks for their children. With the present cost of living, this limit, I feel, is grossly unjust as RM1,000 is such negligible amount for even a small family of four these days. There are so many parents with incomes exceeding this limit but are really finding it difficult make ends meet and have to resort to loan sharks, the consequences of which we are all familiar.

The implementation of the free textbook scheme needs to be reviewed. By strictly relying solely on documents to prove one's salary, a large number of genuine applicants are rejected whereas many with more than the stipulated income but 'tahu jalan' are granted free textbooks. It is indeed sad that a 'I win all always' culture is gaining root in our country. There is total disregard for those genuinely in need. Even what is rightfully theirs is snatched away by those who 'tahu jalan'.

A more comprehensive mechanism should be implemented in selecting those who require assistance with the textbooks. Families with a total income of less than RM2,000 should automatically qualify for the free textbook scheme. Those with more than RM2,000 but less than RM5,000 should be scrutinised on a case-by-case basis. All essential financial commitments of the parents should be examined, such as number of dependents (children and aged parents), medical expenditure, housing loans, motor vehicle loans and so on.

We are sure many teachers and headmasters are aware of the plight of these poor parents but are unable or refuse to help because of strict enforcement of the stipulated salary limit. This is a pitiful state of affairs of our administration. We have very good and fantastic plans but many of them fail because of poor implementation due a lack of the human touch from those entrusted with the powers to do so.