KUCHING: Education Minister Dato’ Seri Mahdzir Khalid disclosed there are 2,900 schools with less than 150 students nationwide.
He said based on the existing rule, these schools cannot be closed as long as parents do not give their consent.
“There are some of these schools probably with only four to five pupils. We are now thinking of what to do with them. If we are talking about combined schools, that is something that the community members are not really interested in probably because of the distance, probably located outside their areas.
“But in the long run, we must think how we can do something. And that there must be agreement with the community, the Parent-Teachers Associations (PTAs), non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and the community leaders in the areas.
“We can make recommendations but their views must also be taken into consideration in order to ensure the programme is successful because if we don’t take into consideration their views and we just go ahead, probably the community may not be interested, ” he said.
Mahdzir said this when speaking to reporters before officiating at the 19th National Education Management Conference for District Education Officers 2007 at Grand Margherita Hotel here Wednesday Night.
This three-day conference organised by the Ministry of Education Malaysia, Day Schools Management Division and the Malaysia District Education Officers Council (MPPDM) is being attended by 142 district education officers from throughout Malaysia.
Mahdzir said the conference is important to district education officers for them to discuss matters related with policies at the ministry level, the process of implementation of matters that are related with education development that are implemented according to the National Educational Blue Print and how they could be achieved.
The Education Plan for 2013-2015 was called Wave 1 and now the Education Development Plan for year 2017-2020 is called Wave 2, he said.
