MCA president Liow Tiong Lai has promised to help resolve problems in disbursing budget allocations to Chinese national-type secondary schools, the Malaysia Conforming Secondary Schools Development Council (MCSSDC) said today.

The group's chairperson Kok Kim Tong said Liow promised the problems in disbursing the RM25 million allocation for the schools would be resolved by the end of the year.

MCSSDS secretary Goh Boon Poh said that Liow also promised to intervene to ensure the disbursement of a separate RM5,000 per month allocation for the schools' utility bills.

“ This was announced last year in 2014 during the budget proposal but to date many Chinese national-type secondary schools nationwide have yet to receive the money which is RM5,000 per month or RM60,000 per year for water and electricity.

“ We hope this will be disbursed quickly because it is already December. Datuk Seri (Liow) has promised to intervene on this.

“ The situation in each state is different and within same state, the situation in each district is different. So there has been much confusion,” Goh told a press conference in Putrajaya today after a meeting with Liow, who is also transport minister.

He said allocation for utility bills was promised by Finance Minister Najib Abdul Razak himself and there should be no excuses for not disbursing it.

Previously in late October, the Chinese press highlighted that 79 Chinese national-type schools nationwide have not received any of the other allocations which was RM25 million mainly intended for school repairs.

According to an interview with Goh by Guang Ming Daily published on Oct 26, the schools are mainly funded through their own fundraising campaigns and only needed the allocation for major works.

However, delays in disbursing the funds had put the schools on edge, the report said, as school holidays have started on Nov 20 and the schools risk missing the best time to conduct building repairs.

Matter of principals

On another matter, Kok said the MCSSDC urged Liow to forward the group's concerns about a shortage of school principals to the cabinet.

He said since the introduction of the requirement that principals need to have a National Professional Qualification for Educational Leaders (NPQEL) to qualify for the job, there has been a shortage of principals at Chinese national-type schools.

Many of these schools, he said, do not currently have a principal, sometimes for up to a year.

Hence, he said he hopes that principals will be allowed to serve without the NPQEL if he or she receives the recommendation by the school board with the candidate qualifying for the NPQEL later.