PTA Additional Fees Can Now Be Paid Mid-year, Says Hishammuddin
Written by Gunboy on Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008
PTA Additional Fees Can Now Be Paid Mid-year, Says Hishammuddin
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 27 (Bernama) — Beginning next year, additional fees set by the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) will not be collected at the beginning of the school session, said Education Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein.
Instead, he said the meeting of School Session 2009 Committee on Monday had decided that such fees would be collected mid-year upon approval from the PTA.
“With this decision, the PTA will be given the mandate to decide on the amount of additional fees to be collected from the parents.
“Apart from alleviating the parents’ burden, the move is also in line with the ministry’s effort to empower the PTA’s role and responsibility in helping to develop the national education system,” added Hishammuddin after Cuban Ambassador to Malaysia Carlos Alfredo called on him at Parliament house here Thursday.
The minister said the decision was made, following the recent economic uncertainties and after much consideration on the best suitable approach to reduce the financial burden on parents in the beginning of every school session.
However, he hoped that the PTA would not make an issue out of the decision as the ministry had borne most of the allocation for next year’s school session.
For one, Hishammuddin said, he had asked the ministry to seek suitable and transparent methods to channel financial aid to the PTA.
The PTA’s additional fees had became a major issue among parents as the amount could reach as high as RM180 and become a burden to most parents who could not afford it.
On Oct 30, last year, the ministry issued a circular on the ceiling amount of the fees for the PTA.
The maximum additional fees for primary school was fixed at RM38.50 and RM55.50 for secondary school.
The official school fees for both primary and secondary schools, however, has been abolished by the government, beginning this year.
Meanwhile, Hishammuddin said for the 2009 school session, the ministry had set aside a large allocation, including RM1.06 billion for hostel food, RM270 million for supplementary food scheme, RM262 million for scholarships, RM246 million for tuition aid scheme and RM200 million for the poor students trust fund.
Other allocations are RM72 million for the disabled students aid, RM27 million for school milk programme and RM20 million to acquire uniforms for the uniformed bodies.
“Apart from that, the ministry has also given RM96.319 million for the extension of the text book loan scheme and at the same time, helping students at boarding schools as their parents earned less than RM600 a month,” said Hishammuddin.
– BERNAMA
