Part 2 — Of schools, hostels, and tight budget

FEB 17 — I must confess I write this for “fear” of being accused (by the authorities and everyone else) of only wanting to write about “not good news”. Earlier this month I wrote about the “plight” of our students as a result of tight operating budget in schools and hostels. Well, since that article there has been , “developments”, in particular with regards to the annual budget for schools sports. The Education Ministry as we know had slashed the budget from RM6 million to RM1.5 million thus downsizing the number of participating teams and axing a total of 11 sports from the Malaysian Schools Sports Council 2010 calendar. Due to public outcry the DPM, who is also the Education Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin announced extra budget for the council and ordered all sports dropped earlier be reinstated into the calendar. That’s the good news. Hence this piece, lest I’m labelled “unfair”, for not commenting when things “take the turn for the better”.

Anyway when I heard the good news I sent text messages to friends who are coaches and teachers of schools’ sports teams. To be more specific I sent text messages to three coaches and teachers. One immediately responded and said “it’s good news indeed”. Another took sometime before calling me to say he will have extra training sessions to “whip” his players into shape now that “our tournament is back”. The third replied via text message. He said he didn’t know “when it will be implemented”. When I asked him when he expected it to happen he replied “Pray to God”. I could sense a tinge of scepticism. I sent him a text and told him so, that he didn’t sound “convinced”. He shot back. “Odd. Earlier in the year different circular issued. Less than a month, different things are said .So how am I to be convinced”?

Obviously he wasn’t “upbeat”. I left it at that.

A few days ago I called another friend who is also involved in school sports activities to ask when will the 11 “back from the dead” sports be competed, now that there’s money available? “No news yet”, was his reply. He said the procedure is a circular must be issued by the Education Ministry’s Sports and Co curriculum unit to the various state education departments giving them the green light.

“Then there are many procedures. It’s not a simple case of inserting a sport into the calendar just like that”, I was told. But first things first, “Let’s wait for the all important circular,” he said.

Usually the tournaments would start in March or April. That doesn’t give the organisers much time to prepare. To be fair to the ministry there are “certain matters” which needed to be ironed out before the circular can be issued. Then there’s the long Chinese New Year break. Down the line, for the teachers and coaches the waiting can be “frustrating’. I can’t help but recall my friend’s “lack of optimism” when I told him about the ministry’s decision to reinstate all sports in the Schools Sports Council calendar.

Perhaps I could conclude like this. You had wanted to hold a grand dinner at a big hall or ball room. Then you cancelled the dinner because you found out you don’t have the “right” budget for it. But somehow weeks later, you managed to get your hands on some money. Now you want to hold the dinner again. But you can’t do it with the snap of a finger. You have to call the caterers to know if they would still be available on the date set earlier . Then you have to find out if the ball room you wanted is still available . Or has it been taken up by some other folks for their grand dinner. Then you have to reissue invitation cards and send it all over again to your guests and pray they do not have other engagements. As you had cancelled the earlier date perhaps they have filled the date with other functiona. And it goes on and on.

In short the dinner you “craved” for can be held but only after lots of hard painstaking work. It will need time before you play host to the dinner. Moral of the story ?  Think hard when planning for events. And think harder before cancelling . Am I right to say this ? But then again what do I know?

* The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist.