The Sabah state government sets aside RM32 million every year to fund maintenance and other costs of Chinese schools and non-Muslim houses of worship.
The Borneo Post quoted Sabah Minister of Special Tasks Teo Chee Kang as saying the state government had given RM188,542,180 to non-Islamic religious bodies and RM145,448,019 to Chinese schools during this period.
Every year, according to the report, the allocation benefits nine Chinese independent secondary schools, 83 Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina (SJKC), eight conforming schools, 62 primary and secondary mission schools and 112 kindergartens in Sabah.
In 2017, a total of 135 churches, 122 Chinese temples, and eight Hindu and Sikh temples received the allocations.
Teo, who chairs the state government’s annual allocation for Chinese Schools and non-Islamic religious bodies committee, said Sabah was the first state in Malaysia to allocate annual funding for Chinese schools and non-Islamic religious bodies during the Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) government era in the 1980s.
“In 1994, the Barisan Nasional (BN) government took over the state government and continued this policy till the present day.
“In the past, the state government only set aside around RM2 million to RM3 million each year for the purpose.
“Today, the annual budget has increased to RM20 million for non-Islamic religious bodies and RM12 million for Chinese schools,” Teo told the Borneo Post in an interview.
He said the annual allocation was the most direct measure to financially support the schools and religious bodies.
He noted that Sarawak had allocated RM3 million in total to Chinese independent secondary schools there under its late chief minister Adenan Satem in 2014 and that since then the allocation had been increasing by RM1 million each year.
However, he said, Chinese primary schools, Chinese kindergartens and mission schools were not included in the allocation provided by the Sarawak state government.
“Hence, I think the annual allocation by the Sabah state government is the most direct measure to assist Chinese schools and non-Islamic religious bodies,” he said.
Teo said, in his visits to these schools, he found that Chinese vernacular primary schools, independent secondary schools, mission schools and conforming schools fared better in the maintenance of the facilities compared with government schools.
“It shows the state government’s annual allocation, under the wise management of the board of directors of the schools, has achieved the desired effect. The allocation allows students to learn in a more comfortable and conducive environment.”
Teo also said the state government had set aside RM32 million for the annual allocation to schools next year.
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