COMMENT | Parents can no longer look to the Ministry of Education for a solution to their children’s education woes these days.

One issue after another has cropped up and despite being highlighted in the news media, its current minister, Mahdzir Khalid, and his two deputies appear to be merely paying lip service – pussyfooting, to say the least!

Major issues are not solved, but the culprits are let off easily, without the appropriate measures undertaken to solve the root of the problems.

With the latest story that we read, I tend to agree strongly with the Parent Action Group for Education (Page) that innocent young children should not be used as pawns in political games that adults play.

The ministry can now label Page as an NGO that is supporting the opposition, but knowing Page well enough, I can vouch that it is non-political. However, making the children chant “Hidup Umno” (Long Live Umno) and wave Umno’s party flags in the school in Putrajaya is disgusting, which I have to say in the face of the guest minister, Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor.

Tengku Adnan, being a senior minister (and the MP for Putrajaya), should be aware that schools are meant for the younger generation to be educated, not brainwashed, so that they can develop their critical thinking skills at a young age.

I always thought that the Ministry of Education insisted that schools should not invite any politicians without the permission of the ministry.

Here, we did not only have a senior Umno minister, but both the Umno slogans sung by the children and party flags prominently displayed. Sometimes this makes me wonder if the headmaster is an Umno member himself, or if he had indeed gained his promotion due to his unquestionable loyalty to the party.

Within one day, he had all three things together – an Umno minister as the guest, the Umno flags and the Umno slogan being sung by his schoolchildren! In the first place, has the school been turned into an Umno school?

With Tengku Adnan claiming that the invitation to speak at the 19th Communist Party of China (CPC) national congress is a great honour to Umno, is Umno now using our children to emulate the rise of the red guards during the Cultural Revolution in 1966?

More woes, but no solutions

Personally, as a parent, I do not see Mahdzir or his two deputies being effective in their respective roles. I can see why the confidence of parents in the Education Ministry is eroding away.

On Aug 15, The Star reported Mahdzir as saying that his ministry is determined to get to the bottom of the heavy schoolbag issue and a nationwide report would be completed before Aug 31. We have passed the deadline, and less than two months after the hype, my son’s bag is now getting heavier again.

Bernama chairperson Azman Ujang complained to me that his grandson, in another school in Selangor, is carrying a bag heavier than his own, but the Selangor Education Department had not even visited the school concerned. In short, the solution is only a slap on the wrist. Thereafter, school principals are allowed to revert to the status quo.

In the words of Azman himself: "I have given up my effort for lighter schoolbags. It will not happen in my lifetime."

Deputy Education Minister Chong Sin Woon (photo) was at SJK (C) Khai Chee in May this year, talking about the burden of excessive workbooks, but he did nothing about it. Instead, a single mother with several children at the school had told me that her children are also having the same problem with heavy bags and scores of workbooks.

Both SJK (C) Puay Chai 2 and SJK (C) Khai Chee have smart boards, so there is no excuse that teachers are not using the facilities to help reduce the children’s heavy bag load.

Simply not enough is being done to solve these issues. I would like to ask Chong if he had reported the matter to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) after he had said: “I know a publisher who operates hundreds of school bookshops nationwide. How he got the tender is not transparent.”

If yes, I would also like to know who this publisher is and why he is so privileged to operate so many school bookshops! The catch phrase these days among parents is this: “Ask Sin Woon ('sin wen’, as in 'Chinese news'), Kamalanathan  (the deputy education minister I) and Khalid, and they will tell you they are looking seriously into it!”.

For this reason, the issue of workbooks, school fees and indiscriminate caning by teachers will never be solved. By reversing the ministry’s standing instruction to once again allow headmasters to delegate caning to the teachers, it clearly shows the Education Ministry has no stance of its own.

Education standard has regressed

We are regressing. Instead of looking at ways to improve our education system, most teachers will prefer to use the one-stick (rotan) solution to all problems.

Instead of being counselled to love their children, or trying to understand why the children are behaving in a certain manner, teachers are given the easy way out: just use the cane. Even when parents failed to pay the Parent-Teacher Association (PIBG) and security fees, the child got caned 12 times.

The principal delegated the authority but the responsibility and the punishment fell flat on the poor teacher, who was already under a lot of pressure to collect the fees.

Under normal circumstances, the principal would have been transferred out, but despite the numerous wrongdoings, her position is unshakeable, simply because the matter is now being referred back the Selangor Education Department, which parents claimed, did nothing to nip the problem in the bud.

My own experience proves this to be true. After scores of letters, I only received one official response from the Selangor education director. Tell me about it! Confidence in the Education Ministry has been eroding away with Mahdzir (photo) helming the ministry.

Like most parents, I was initially happy with the statements issued by Chong and P Kamalanathan that parents need to change their mindsets about the burden of workbooks, but it was all huff and puff.

I quote again Chong’s own statement in The Star on July 30 this year, where he merely defended the ministry’s stance: “No formal investigation has been conducted as the Education Ministry hasn’t received any official complaints.”

What shocked most of us was when the schools were later asked to conduct a survey, the questions asked were biased towards unsuspecting parents, in order to get the majority to agree to the school authority being allowed to decide on the workbooks.

This would reverse the policy that was first laid out in 2000, and subsequently looked into by a different task force in 2014. Two circular letters had already been issued.

It is no wonder why issues relating to school bullies, indiscriminate use of caning, heavy bags, all kinds of donations and fees imposed on parents of schoolchildren have become perennial problems in our school system, when both Education Ministry officials and their political masters are not interested in dealing with the real issues.

STEPHEN NG is an ordinary citizen with an avid interest in following political developments in the country since 2008.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.