Private education is important. Ideally, all education should be public because education is a public good. But this is not possible simply because governments everywhere do not have the resources to meet the growing educational needs of their citizens.
This is an important question because education is a public good, unlike other services in the market. As a public good, there must be sufficient access to it. If access is exclusive because of cost, then there is a need to revisit private education, its role and operations. As demand grew, more international schools were established by businesses to provide education from nursery to “O” and “A” levels or their equivalent. The original purpose of international schools was replaced with a business motive. This has given rise to several concerns.
For this, the child receives about five hours of “schooling” a day . For the same amount of money, a parent can put their son or daughter through an MQA accredited MBA programme in a local university. A kid in Grade 4 pays more than someone in Grade 1, about RM35,000 a year. I am not suggesting the education ministry determine the fees. That would be from the frying pan into the fire. All I am asking is whether the fees in international schools are equitable. Any argument that our international schools and private colleges are cheaper than those in other countries is irrelevant. Our private institutions have to stand on their own.
Facilities have to be added and upgraded. Teachers have to be trained to enhance their professional skills. Many of the teachers are from overseas who cost more to employ. There is the cost of administration. Even the middle-class parents would not be able to afford them. International schools will become more and more elitist, on the model of the public schools in the UK. This would not be socially responsible in a country like Malaysia.
The relationship between facilities and quality of education is nebulous. I set up the PJ Community College in 1984 to offer the American degree transfer programme. It was located above the Thrifty Supermarket on Jalan Barat, Petaling Jaya. It was crammed. Sometimes the roof leaked. The Varghese brothers set up Vanto Academy in Petaling Jaya in the 1970s for dropouts from the public school system and to provide access to students wanting to do STPM. I established PJCC because I saw a gap in the system for American education.
'Parents go to international schools because the public schools are failing in quality and relevance.'
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