Housing developers urged to build schools to overcome overcrowded classrooms - Expert
The expert said this is necessary since the existing urban development is not balanced with the development of school infrastructure.
KUALA LUMPUR - The government has been urged to make it compulsory for developers to build schools in new housing areas with more than 500 residential units to overcome the issue of overcrowded classrooms.
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) Centre of Education and Diversity, Faculty of Education senior lecturer Dr Anuar Ahmad said the matter needs to be given serious attention in urban planning as well as education policy.
He said this is necessary since the existing urban development is not balanced with the development of school infrastructure.
"Developers need to develop primary schools in every urban development or new housing they undertake. If the housing development involves about 500 units, they need to build primary schools, but if the housing units exceed 500 then the developers need to build primary and secondary schools.
"We can no longer expect developers to just provide land for the construction of a school because even after a few years later, the school is not even built due to bureaucratic problems and so on," he said.
The government, he said, could consider initiatives, like tax exemptions, for developers who built schools in their areas of development
Anuar, who is also the Secretary of the Education and Human Capital Development Cluster of the National Council of Professors said as a short-term solution, the ministry could create the post of assistant teacher, especially for classes with more than 40 students in addition to increasing the number of teachers in crowded schools.
"At the global level, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) recommend the number of students for each class at only 20 to 25 students to ensure an effective teaching and learning process (PDP)," he said.
He also voiced his concern that if the problem is not resolved immediately, it will cause the quality, motivation and focus of students to continue to decline and teachers will lose focus and will be 'burned out'.
At the opening of the new school session last Sunday, there were many complaints among parents of too many students in a class, with some more than 50 students with dozens of classes created for every grade and level. - BERNAMA
