DAP election strategist Ong Kian Ming has called on the government to review how it awards contracts for the development of education infrastructure before taking on the more ambitious National Education Blueprint (NEB).
In a statement today, he said that despite the billions invested in educational infrastructure over the years, the yield has been poor due to leakages.
"Without identifying where and how these wastages occur, we have little confidence that the ambitious targets to upgrade the physical infrastructure in schools, as outlined by the NEB for 2013 to 2015, will succeed where past plans have failed," Ong (above) said.
An example, he said, was the government's RM16 billion investment to develop physical infrastructure for the education system between 2006 and 2010.
With such heavy investment, he said the government between 2005 and 2011 only managed to reduce schools with no access to clean water from 1585 to 1500 while schools without computer labs was only brought down from 2768 to 2700.
"What is more worrying is the statistic that the number of schools without adequate science labs has actually risen by 336," said Ong.
In a statement today, he said that despite the billions invested in educational infrastructure over the years, the yield has been poor due to leakages.
"Without identifying where and how these wastages occur, we have little confidence that the ambitious targets to upgrade the physical infrastructure in schools, as outlined by the NEB for 2013 to 2015, will succeed where past plans have failed," Ong (above) said.An example, he said, was the government's RM16 billion investment to develop physical infrastructure for the education system between 2006 and 2010.
With such heavy investment, he said the government between 2005 and 2011 only managed to reduce schools with no access to clean water from 1585 to 1500 while schools without computer labs was only brought down from 2768 to 2700.
"What is more worrying is the statistic that the number of schools without adequate science labs has actually risen by 336," said Ong.
Consistently overspending
He added that the World Bank Public Expenditure Report 2011 found the Education Ministry consistently overspending its operating budget, peaking at 10.7 percent or about RM2 billion in 2010.
"Without a comprehensive review of overspending and wastage by the Education Ministry in the past and without a comprehensive review of the manner in which projects are contracted out, there is little chance that the nice sounding Key Performance Indexes outlined in the NEB will be delivered.
"This is one of the reasons why the Pakatan Rakyat Education Taskforce (PET) is asking the Education Ministry to make available to the public the World Bank Public Expenditure Report 2011 as well as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) Report, the Dzukifli Abdul Razak's Malaysia Review Panel report and the International Review Panel's report," he said.
"Without a comprehensive review of overspending and wastage by the Education Ministry in the past and without a comprehensive review of the manner in which projects are contracted out, there is little chance that the nice sounding Key Performance Indexes outlined in the NEB will be delivered.
"This is one of the reasons why the Pakatan Rakyat Education Taskforce (PET) is asking the Education Ministry to make available to the public the World Bank Public Expenditure Report 2011 as well as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) Report, the Dzukifli Abdul Razak's Malaysia Review Panel report and the International Review Panel's report," he said.
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