KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's ministry of education has warned the opposition of attempting to use politics to enter the educational sector in the country. Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Muhyiddin Yassin on Monday told the PAS to keep politics out of the efforts to improve religious schools. He said it would facilitate the sustainability of these schools, if PAS registered them with the Education Ministry. The minister said it would be easier for the ministry to help in terms of infrastructure, quality of teachers, curriculum and others. “However, they (PAS) do not want to accept the offer. They do not want to work with the ministry because they regard it as being under the Barisan Nasional (BN). “This is not a question of politics. If it can be done, it can reduce problems,” he said at a debate at the policy stage for the ministry on the 2013 Supply Bill. Yassin said that though the schools came under the jurisdiction of the state governments, the federal government channelled aid to them, even those which had yet to register with the ministry. He said RM10.5 million was allocated to these schools to conduct Qur'an and ‘Fardu Ain' classes this year. Last year, RM95 million was channelled as a one-off compassionate aid to 247 people's religious schools throughout the country, he added. “I realize that these schools still require aid. With the allocation we have, we can consider compassionate aid on a case-by-case basis from applications from the schools which are in dire need,” he said.
