Hisham: Opposition's free education a fiction

The notion of a free education system as promised by the opposition is definitely ‘not a viable concept’ as far as Umno and BN youth chief, Hishammuddin Hussein Onn is concerned.

Speaking during a special visit to some 300 teachers at the Pandan Mewah secondary school in Kuala Lumpur today, he said his experience as the current education minister had taught him that a free education policy would require the government to spend hundreds of millions of ringgit.

Elaborating, he said that tuition allowances for teachers alone would cause the government to incur a RM280 million cost let alone inducing numerous other programmes that would enable parents to enjoy a zero-cost education for their children..

"So what kind of free education are the opposition talking about? Don’t be swayed by their promises. They are only empty promises," he said.

Hishammudin, however, did not proceed further in explaining his stand that free education could not be achieved by the government spending more to alleviate the financial burden on some parents.

The BN Youth chief was there to show support for BN candidates contesting in the Pandan constituency. Incumbent Ong Tee Keat is contesting the areas’s parliamentary seat while Lum Weng Keong and Nosimah Hashim are contesting the Teratai and Cempaka state seats respectively.

Hishammuddin said that the BN-led government had done more than what it had promised in its past election manifesto for education.

"We have fulfilled our promises. We have cut down school fees, provided textbook loans for all students and even provided allowances for uniformed extracurricular programmes," he said.

Hishammudin said that there had been many instances where the opposition parties, namely DAP and PKR, had tried to tarnish the reputation of BN with regards to education.

"One of them even tries to be the hero of the Tamil and Chinese schools. Well, let me ask that person, what did he do for these schools when he was the education minister?"

He was referring to PKR’s de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim who was the former education minister before he was promoted to become the deputy prime minister.

Anwar has been critical of the BN-led government with regards to the latter’s vernacular education polices claiming it has done less than enough to address the problems facing these schools.

This, however, was brushed aside by the education minister.

"Again I say, don’t be trapped by the issues carried by the opposition. They are only trying to confuse you but I am certain that the voters here will not be fooled," he said.

He added that BN will do its utmost best to make the Pandan parliamentary constituency and the Cempaka and Teratai state constituencies BN strongholds.