More than two-thirds of the national primary schools in the country have less than 600 students, according to Education Minister Hishammuddin Hussein in a written reply in parliament today.

Out of a total of 5,761 national schools in the country, 4,418 or 76.7 percent of them have less than 600 students, he said in the reply to Teresa Kok (DAP-Seputeh).

To another question from Kok, the minister said that out of the total of 1,287 Chinese national-type schools, 58 or 4.5 percent of them have above 2,000 students. The statistics for Tamil schools were not provided.

Hishammuddin said the government would not convert national schools with low numbers of students into other streams as this was not the government's policy.

"The Education Act 1996 clearly states that types of schools that are allowed to be operated in this country and parents can freely choose these schools.

"Nonetheless, the government has taken efforts to strengthen the national schools to make them the mainstream schools of choice for all races to foster national unity," he said.

Kok, when met, said the statistics showed that while several Chinese schools were over- crowded at present, some of the national schools were under-utilised.

New department

In another written reply to Tan Kok Wai (DAP-Cheras), Hishammuddin revealed that 19 plots of land totalling 122.7 acres had been reserved for 19 national primary schools in Kuala Lumpur.

Construction of nine schools, occupying a total acreage of 58.27, was underway at present, he added.

On another front, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz announced that the cabinet has agreed to establish a Parliament Department.

He said the directive was effective Sept 15 and the department's director-general would be answerable to Nazri and the Parliament Speaker. The candidate for the post would be appointed and announced later.

Nazri explained the task of the director-general would be to oversee administrative and financial affairs of both the Dewan Rakyat and Dewan Negara.

He said with the creation of the post, the responsibilities of the Senate and Lower House's secretaries would be more evenly distributed to manage parliamentary affairs more smoothly.