‘School boards of management need not register with MoE, education dept’
KUCHING: No school board of management is required to register with the Ministry of Education ( MoE) or with education departments in various states as stipulated under the Education Act 1996.
In pointing this out, Association of the Boards of Management of Aided Chinese Primary Schools Kuching, Samarahan and Serian Divisions president Jonathan Chai said he could not fathom the recent directive issued by the Melaka education department.
The department, in a directive, recently informed boards of national-type Chinese schools that they were no longer required to register with the department.
The issue was highlighted by a national Chinese daily in its publication yesterday.
“I don’t know what all the fuss is about. I read about the news too, about the directive given by the Education Department of Melaka to the effect that board of management of SJK(C) (nationaltype Chinese schools) in the state will no longer be required to register with the department.
“I see nothing wrong with that directive because under the provisions of the Education Act 1966, it is the board members who shall be required to register on an individual basis and not the entire board itself,” he said when contacted yesterday.
Chai, a lawyer by profession, said if the directive referred to the board of management, then the authority concerned probably only highlighted the issue as prescribed by the prevailing law.
According to him, the legal status of the board is accorded by Section 53 of the Education Act 1996.
“No one can take that away unless the law is amended. And under Section 88 of the Act, the members of the board are required to register with the Education Department but not the board itself.
“But to the best of my knowledge, we have not received any such directive in Sarawak,” he added.
Section 53 of the Act, which comes with four subsections, touches on ‘instrument of government for educational institutions’.
Subsection (1) reads ‘Subject to the provisions of this Act, every educational institution shall have an instrument of government.’
Subsection ( 2) reads ‘ Every instrument of government shall provide for the constitution of a board of governors, with a chairman, for the management of the educational institution by the governors in a manner not inconsistent with this Act and any regulations made under this Act’.
Subsection (3) reads ‘Subsection (1) shall not apply to government educational institutions except a national-type school and schools to be determined by the Minister’.
Subsection (4) reads ‘ Every instrument of government shall be made, amended or revoked in such manner as may be prescribed’.
Meanwhile, Section 88 of the Act carries two subsections: (1) Every person who acts as a governor or employee of an educational institution shall be registered as a governor or employee, as the case may be, in respect of the educational institution. ( 2) An application for registration as a governor or employee of an educational institution shall be in the prescribed form.