Fatimah: Not a must to use workbooks
KUCHING: The Education Ministry has never made it mandatory for schools to use workbooks.
Welfare, Women and Community Wellbeing Minister Datuk Fatimah Abdullah, in making this clarification, said it was a matter between teachers and parents.
“It is not mandatory for schools to use workbooks because it can be a burden, especially for the lowincome parents.
“If one is to look at the Ministry of Education’s guidelines on the fees that schools can charge parents, it does not include workbooks,” she told The Borneo Post yesterday.
Fatimah said workbooks such as reference books, where some chapters on certain topics would have exercises and questions, could be useful and thus could be recommended to students.
“Some are not necessary,” she added.
Fatimah recalled that there was a time many years back when some parents complained about the cost of workbooks, which then prompted the Education Ministry to clear the air that workbooks were not mandatory.
While it is not compulsory for schools to use workbooks, she said textbooks are a must for all pupils. “( However) These textbooks are made available and distributed free for all Malaysian children,” she added.
Fatimah, who is the Minister in charge of Education in the state, was responding to state DAP chairman Chong Chieng Jen’s suggestion for the prices of compulsory workbooks for primary schools to be made uniform.
Chong, who is Bandar Kuching MP and Kota Sentosa assemblyman, pointed out that Sarawakians were currently paying an average of eight to nine per cent more than their counterparts in Peninsular Malaysia for these books.