Education budget crucial, say experts
SHAH ALAM - Poor infrastructure in schools, shortage of teachers and TVET programmes are crucial matters expected to be addressed in education under Budget 2023, say experts.
Budget 2023 will be retabled by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim in Parliament this Friday.
Many industries hope for greater allocations and education is expected to take a big chunk of allocations.
Speaking on his expectation for Budget 2023 this time around, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) senior lecturer Dr Anuar Ahmad hopes the budget can solve outstanding issues especially rural schools dealing with infrastructure problems.
"Allocation should be given to improve poor schools as there are more than 800 poor schools all over Malaysia especially Sabah and Sarawak.
"Overcrowded schools are also crucial especially schools in cities like Klang, Johor Bahru and Kuala Lumpur. There are classes with more than 45 students.
"This disrupts lessons and teachers looking to produce a quality teaching," he said to Sinar Daily.
Anuar also addressed the shortage of teachers especially in urban areas and urged the government to resolve the issue as it affects the quality of teaching and learning.
Commenting on school dropouts, Anuar stressed that school dropouts are at a critical level especially after the pandemic and Orang Asli students also need special incentives.
"Orang Asli and special needs students also require special incentives to ensure their education is not left out.
"For Orang Asli students, we must have special programs to help them so that they are not left out especially in secondary school.
"We hope the government's policy of mandating 11 years (standard one to form five) of education can be implemented in the near future so that they can choose the fields of study they like, whether TVET or vocational," he reasoned.
Anuar also hopes that Budget 2023 will focus on doubling the numbers of students in TVET especially at the secondary school level.
Meanwhile, Universiti Malaya Education Professor Tan Sri Dr T Marimuthu said the government must not reduce the budget for education because it is an important element that touches almost every family in the country.
"It is very critical especially considering the problems at education phases post-pandemic, which resulted in many education issues such as dropouts, irregular attendance and online teaching.
"The allocation should be mantained or increased but should never decrease," he said.
Marimuthu also said that Budget 2023 on education must be focused to increase the quality of teaching and learning process.
Teachers who lack digitalisation skills must be given speacial training as they are educating students in the digital era.
"The allocation should be spent on increasing the quality of teaching and learning process.
"Don't only spend money on chairs and desks but spend on the quality of teachers, hire more teachers since there are a lot of people hanging around with degrees with no job.
"Give teachers service training so they will have enough knowledge to educate the students," he said.
Parent Action Group for Education Malaysia (PAGE) Datin Noor Azimah Abdul Rahim hoped the Education Ministry allocates more funding to scale up Dual Language Programme schools.
"The government should focus on eliminating leakage, wastage and sub-contracting all expenditures to ensure that students receive the benefit of every ringgit rather than enriching cronies," she said.
Azimah also said there should be a more targetted focus on TVET as an avenue for school dropouts.
"There should be a concerted effort to educate and nurture Orang Asli students in remote areas.
"We need to reconsider employing teaching assistants to bridge the learning loss from the Covid-19 pandemic and a greater allocation for teacher training to produce quality teachers which is a key factor in determining the success of the education system," she said.
