KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 8 (Sin Chew Daily) — Chinese, Tamil and missionary schools in the country have been allocated a total of RM150 million in Budget 2021 for maintenance and upgrading of school facilities.

MCA president Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong confirmed that the allocation for Chinese, Tamil and missionary schools remained the same.

These schools were also allocated RM150 million in this year's Budget.

The education ministry will discuss in a meeting next week whether the three streams of schools will each get RM50 million.

Finance minister Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz announced that the education ministry would receive a total of RM50.4 billion in Budget 2021, whereby government schools and government-aided schools would receive RM800 million. He did not mention allocations for Chinese primary schools. 

Based on the latest figures from the ministry, there are a total of 884 semi-aided Chinese primary schools, 342 Tamil primary schools, 396 missionary schools and 81 Chinese national-type secondary schools in the country.

Wee told Sin Chew Daily the Perikatan Nasional government would allocate not less than RM20 million to Chinese secondary schools as these schools are also government-aided.

Deputy education minister Datuk Dr Mah Hang Soon said the ministry would discuss the allocations for all streams of schools next week. The meeting will be chaired by education minister Dr Mohd Radzi Md Jidin.

In a statement, Mah said the allocations for schools would be announced once finalized.

He also said the ministry would also receive RM800 million for maintenance and upgrading of school facilities. This sum is higher than the RM735 million allocations for 2020.

MCA secretary-general Datuk Chong Sin Woon met Tengku Zafrul on education allocations in Budget 2021 earlier.

"The education ministry will consider the proposals and requests made by various educational groups," said Mah.

Chinese primary schools, Tamil schools and missionary schools have been receiving RM50 million each year from 2017 to 2020, while Chinese secondary schools were allocated RM20 million in Budget 2020.