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Don’t make education a scapegoat – Sin Chew Daily
Owing to plunging international oil prices, the government has tightened its belt and the public must be psychologically prepared for the challenges to come.
Lower allocations for education mean one after another bad news for the country's education, including the suspension of JPA's bursary program for some 700 pre-university students and the termination of contracts for 156 lecturers at public universities.
As if that is not enough, the mother tongue classes in some states may have to be scrapped while allocations to schools of different language streams are being slashed.
The government is also carrying on with its subsidy rationalization program such as the abolition of subsidy for 25kg pack of flour with effect from March 1.
It has been rumored that liquor tax will also be increased soon.
If all these measures fail to meet the government's target of 3.1% budgetary deficit, more price and tax increases will be in the pipeline.
The prime minister announced during the tabling of 2016 Budget last October that expenses of government departments would be trimmed by about RM6.7 billion from the 2015 Budget.
However, following the drastic falls in oil prices subsequently, the prime minister unveiled the recalibrated 2016 Budget on January 28 in a bid to cut some RM9 billion in the government's operating and development expenditures.
The PM nevertheless failed to elaborate on how the various government departments would effectively cut almost 5% in their expenditures.
So, it is up to individual departments to come up with their own austerity measures.
Take the RM2.4 billion budgetary cut for the higher education ministry for instance, contract lecturers at public universities are being sacrificed without the institutions taking into consideration the possible consequences.
National Professors Council (MPN) chief executive Prof. Datuk Dr. Raduan Che Rose has said the government needs to spend up to RM3 million to produce each new academic professional, and if these professors eventually land on jobs overseas, the loss could be monumental.
We need high quality teaching professionals if we are serious in becoming a high-income developed country and regional educational hub.
Terminating the contracts of professors is a step backward, causing immeasurable loss to the country.
Unfortunately our higher education minister Idris Jusoh has made no effort to rectify the problem, arguing that the universities have the autonomy over most key decisions.
The trimming of allocations for schools is equally inappropriate as this will affect the day-to-day operation of the schools as well as the students' extracurricular activities, which will in turn disrupt the students' holistic development.
Cutting subsidies should be carried out incrementally or else goods prices will shoot up drastically. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) for January rose by an annualized rate of 3.5%, a 22-month high.
The market has yet to fully absorb the impact of the 6% GST while the effects of ringgit devaluation are just beginning to show up.
Any price hike in daily necessities will only deepen the burden of the rakyat.
Without a definitive guideline on expenditure cut, how is the government going to achieve the goal of trimming the budgetary deficit?
The Malaysian Rating Corporation Berhad (MARC) is of the view that the government's projection of RM9 billion budgetary cut is unrealistically optimistic, and given the prevailing economic trend, the government may have to slash more than RM100 billion! Some of the development projects may have to be shelved as a result.
At a time when the country is experiencing tremendous economic pressure, it is all the more critical for the government to distribute the national resources prudently.
Education is the cornerstone of a country's development.
When politics can no longer save the country, we need well educated young people to guide the country out of the doldrums.
The government's plan to cut education allocations will cast a cloud of gloom over the country's future.
Perhaps our political leaders should set aside their political preoccupations and put a little more time and effort on our economy as well as our children and the needs of the underprivileged. – March 2, 2016.
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.
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