An education group and an opposition member of Parliament have urged the Kuala Lumpur City Hall to address the shortage of Chinese primary schools and related issues in its draft structure plan released last month.

The Chinese School Committees' Association (CSCA) of Selangor and Kuala Lumpur and Seputeh MP Teresa Kok have submitted separate letters of objection, as part of public comments o­n the proposals.

Issues 'avoided'

CSCA chairperson Dr Yap Sin Tian said the committee felt that City Hall had "avoided several vital education issues" by not discussing the situation of different types of primary schools in detail.

"The plan did not mention the current situation of these schools, the problems they face, solutions to these problems, and the planning of schools and development projects," the committee said in the letter addressed to mayor Mohmad Shaid Mohamad Taufek.

"From the perspective of professional and good administration, these issues should have been discussed before a development plan was prepared."

The letter, together with a 26-page proposal o­n how education problems should be tackled, was submitted o­n April 28, the last day of an 40-day objection period which started o­n March 10.

The committee also disputed the figures used in the structure plan, saying that the data o­n population and distribution of schools in Kuala Lumpur may not be accurate.

Citing an example, it said the number of primary schools in Kuala Lumpur cited in the draft plan was different from that provided by the Education Ministry.

"According to the draft plan, Kuala Lumpur had 155 primary schools as at 2000... but the ministry's figure shows the city has 177 schools - 119 national schools, 40 Chinese schools, 15 Tamil schools and three special school. o­ne wonders which 22 schools are missing and what will happen to them," the committee said.

Rational questioned

While there is a proposal to build 65 more primary schools without specifying their type by 2020, there is also a plan to relocate 11 existing schools from the city centre.

"What is the rationale for relocating such schools when the plan predicts population growth in the city over the next two decades?" the committee asked.

Given the discrepancy in data and its interpretation, the committee said "the planning of schools has deviated from reality and is disputable".

It reminded City Hall of a government pledge in 1999 to provide Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Confucian in Pudu with a new site.

"Then Education Minister Najib Abdul Razak had written to MCA deputy president Lim Ah Lek and said the government had approved a new site for the school. It was a promise by Barisan Nasional before the 1999 general election," it said.

"However there has not been any progress to date and the school is still sharing the premises with Confucian Independent School."

The committee added City Hall should establish close working relationships with education groups representing different schools to improve the facilities.

Growing demand

In her letter, Kok said the draft plan had o­nly identified the shortage of special schools for disabled children and had failed to do the same for Chinese schools.

"Considering that the Kuala Lumpur population is growing and that many non-Chinese parents send their children to Chinse schools (today), many of these schools are already crowded,"said the DAP parliamentarian.

She said a national type school in her constituency o­nly has some 200 students and should therefore be converted into a Chinese primary school to cater to growing demand.

Vernacular education groups, particularly Chinese o­nes, have long criticised the government for favouring national primary schools those using Bahasa Melayu as the medium of instruction in development.

The groups have repeatedly asked the government to build more national-type primary schools which teach and learn in either Tamil and Chinese.

According to ministry figures, there are 125 national primary schools with 95,894 students in Kuala Lumpur. This was followed by 40 Chinese primary schools with 55,017 students and 15 Tamil schools with 2,704 students.