10 theSun | TUESDAY JANUARY 6 2009

news without borders

Press Digest
by Kong See Hoh

Drive to bring out creativity Ongkili

speaks to
reporters
after
chairing the
newsdesk@thesundaily.com

Schools in
in all sectors of society
National
Innovation
Council’s
first board
a spot
of trustees
meeting. over fees
by Tim Leonard THE Education Ministry’s directive to schools
newdesk@thesundaily.com to stop the collection of miscellaneous fees
for the time being has put Chinese primary
PUTRAJAYA: The Ministry of Science, Tech- schools in a spot.
nology and Innovation, through the Malaysian The directive, issued late last year, is
Innovation Council, intends to inculcate the aimed at lightening the burden on parents
awareness of creativity and innovation to all amid the economic slowdown.
layers of society, including the disabled, prison- But being semi-aided, the Chinese pri-
ners and drug rehabilitation centre inmates. mary schools depend very much on miscel-
Its minister, Datuk Dr Maximus Ongkili, laneous and co-curricular activity fees to
said yesterday the council has approved spe- fund their operation.
cial innovation initiative programmes for the According to a report in Nanyang Siang
societal well-being of Malaysians, especially Pau yesterday, the schools have been told by
those from the lower-income groups, the un- state or district education departments that
employed and micro enterprises. they can collect only RM1.50 as annual in-
He said a lot of inmates holed up in prisons surance payment from their pupils for now.
and drug rehabilitation centres around the The directive has serious implications on
country are actually creative and clever. the schools, which used to organise year-
“Some of them are very creative people and long fee-paying co-curricular activities to
we want them to be innovative and channel raise funds.
their ideas to good use. That will be beneficial The report said the ministry has received
for the society,” he told reporters after chairing many complaints, particularly from those
the National Innovation Council’s first board of Chinese schools which are at a loss as to
trustees meeting at the ministry. how to carry on with these activities without
Ongkili said the council had an initial collecting fees from the pupils.
meeting with the Malaysian Association for They are also worried that with one less
the Blind and the Society of the Deaf to identify source of income, their coffers would soon
the programmes that will enable the disabled run dry.
to come up with new and innovative ideas, as The headmaster of a Chinese school in
well as products or concepts that will make Ongkili said. Petaling Jaya, who was not named in the
everyday life for the disabled easier. “If we are satisfied with his explanation, report, told the daily the district education
The council will also encourage the com- then we will offer him the contract for one department met school heads on Dec 31
mercialisation of intellectual property, busi- year, along with (Mej) Dr Faiz (Khaleed). to convey the directive that they are not
ness development and value addition as well Asked what will happen if the ministry is allowed to collect any fee except the insur-
as product development for enterprises. not satisfied with Sheikh Muszaphar’s expla- ance payment of RM1.50.
Among the other initiatives are the setting nation, he said: “Then Dr Faiz will step in to Under the directive, schools wishing to
up a central depository/data bank of grassroots’ replace Sheikh (Muszaphar).” collect fees to organise co-curricular activi-
innovation and traditional knowledge. Ongkili said it is the ministry’s policy to ties such as computer class, tuition class and
The council will also be working with the review the contract of the national astronauts sports events must get the green light from
corporate sector to raise funds which will be on a year-to-year basis. their parent-teacher associations and the
utilised to undertake the various innovation Sheikh Muszaphar, who contract ended education department.
initiatives. on Dec 31, i s embroiled in controversy fol- Once the approvals are obtained, the
A National Grassroots and Innovation lowing news reports that he had charged up schools can start collecting fees but only
Conference and Exhibition, and an innovation to RM8,000 an hour to give lectures and talks from June.
competition, are slated to be held this year. on his experience in space. The headmaster said that last year, the
On another development, Ongkili said his Ongkili said the new contract will be a schools were allowed to collect RM13 from
ministry will renew the contract of national standard one, which requires the national each pupil as miscellaneous fees.
astronaut Datuk Dr Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor astronaunt to take part in all promotional
for one year, pending the outcome of an inves- and awareness programmes arranged by the
tigation into allegations that he amassed RM1.2
million from a series of talks.
be called to give his side of the story in the
next few days.
ministry and its agencies.
They will be prohibited from receiving any About-turn
He said Sheikh Muszaphar, who had just
returned from performing his pilgrimage, will
“He has to answer a few things first and
we want to hear what he has to say,”
rewards other than those from the ministry or
the government. over schoolbus
surcharge
THE Federation of Malaysian Schoolbus
Operators Associations, which said on Sat-
urday it would definitely go ahead to collect
a 30% surcharge when school began, has
made an about-turn over its stand.
According to a report in Oriental Daily
News yesterday, federation chairman Chee
Ah Tey said it would not insist that the mem-
bers start collecting the surcharge.
“I have no objection if some of the 12,000
members from 34 associations affiliated to
the federation decide not to impose the
surcharge for now,” he told the daily.
“The federation will meet to review
the situation in two months and come up
with another resolution before making a
representation to the Commercial Vehicle
Licensing Board (CVLB).”
At the last meeting on Dec 6, the federa-
tion passed a resolution to impose a 30%
surcharge at the start of the new school
term.
However, the CVLB warned operators
against collecting the surcharge and said
stern action would be taken against those
who defied its order.
It is learnt that schoolbus operators in
Penang have decided to collect a surcharge
of not more than RM5, depending on the
distance covered.
Operators in Perak said they would be
flexible and would negotiable for an amount
agreeable to both operators and parents,
whereas operators in Malacca and Johor
have decided not to impose a surcharge for
the time being.