FORMER deputy education minister Teo Nie Ching has raised the question about the lockers promised by the Education Ministry (MOE) as an approach to address the problem of heavy school bags among school students.
On March 6, 2022 MOE had announced that it will be providing locker facilities in primary schools, with the total estimated allocation for this year being RM37.3 mil and involving 10,662 classes with 323,186 students.
According to MOE, lockers will be provided for pupils in Standards 1 through 3 operating in two sessions this year while the second phase of the locker initiative is expected to start in 2023 which will see the provision of lockers extended to pupils in Standards 4 through 6 in double-session schools.
“It has been two months since the announcement was made and we have not seen MOE installing the lockers in schools. Instead, a primary school in Kuala Lumpur is offering lockers to students to keep their books with a fee of RM120 for eight months,” Teo observed.
According to a local media report, the school had outsourced the installation and maintenance of the lockers to a private company. Parents who are interested have been told to contact the school authorities and make the payment directly to the company.
“Even if this project is carried out with the consent of the schools’ parent-teacher associations (PTAs), the elephant in the room is where are the lockers promised by MOE?” Teo questioned.
“This situation clearly illustrates how MOE has failed miserably in solving the issues of heavy school bags and the installation of the lockers.”
Teo said that she had asked about MOE’s timeline when it comes to installing lockers in schools during the March 21 Parliament sitting but Deputy Education Minister Mah Hang Soon was unable to provide a clear response.
“All he said was more study needs to be done before any concrete timeline could be given,” she added.
Teo further noted that it was strange that the study was not conducted before MOE made the announcement on March 6.
“Nonetheless, MOE should now provide a clear timeline as to when the lockers will be installed before more and more PTAs resort to self-help by renting lockers for their students,” she remarked. – May 20, 2022
