Not too long ago, a young boy was pulled out of his class by his headmaster and made to stand outside on the corridor to watch the class proceedings for the rest of the day. Humiliated, upset and completely confused, he went home and tearfully told the man he sees as his father this, “The headmaster took me out of class today, he said I never pay school fees yet…”

You might wonder which inconsiderate parent would lag behind on school fees long enough for their child to be penalized as such. But this man, Mr. Siva, is no inconsiderate parent. He simply has no choice. For him, school fees are completely draining. At RM117.50 a child, Mr. Siva has 26 boys he needs to pay school fees for.. and counting. At this point, you are probably wondering, “Why so many?”

Mr. Siva runs a home for orphaned or abandoned boys in PJ called Agathians Shelter. Early this June, Mr. Siva received memos from the schools his boys go to demanding fees of RM117.50 a year. Perplexed, he wonders why schools are demanding fees in the middle of the year. Even more so since he remembers reading the papers in late 2007 that school fees have been waived for primary and secondary school students.

After all, in late 2007, the previous Education Minister proudly announced that “education in Malaysia is free” at a UNESCO general conference in Paris. Evidently, he either does not have kids, his kids aren’t school-going, or are enrolled in private / international institutions. Actually, he might need to go back to school to relearn the definition of “free”. Why, you ask?

Turns out, the school has received an approval from the Education Ministry at state and national level to bill parents and caretakers for the school’s “extra charges”. Those aren’t school fees, he was told, those are just extra charges required for the school’s sustainability. So he turns back to the memos he received and, lo and behold, he missed it at first. The term “school fees” do not appear. In fact, everything is termed “Bayaran Tambahan” (Extra Charges) and “Lain Lain” (Miscellaneous).

You might wonder what falls under each category. First, the extra charges category:

This doesn’t seem too bad yet. But wait… you haven’t seen the miscellaneous charges

Naturally, Mr. Siva attempts to negotiate with the schools’ PTA and respective headmasters about cutting down the fees. These are his arguments

1. The boys can share a school magazine. After all, they all live under the same roof. This effectively will save the home RM312 which can then be channeled to their basic necessities.

2. The boys are orphaned / abandoned and he is the legal caretaker for all 26 boys. They have no adoptive or biological parent who can be active in the Parent-Teacher Association or who will attend their annual galas. So is it possible for the PTAs to reduce / waive the PTA fees or at least group the boys as a family so that the home does not have to fork out RM1300 in total for all boys and instead pay for them as a family?

Both reasons seem reasonable to me. After all, Mr. Siva is not negotiating so that he does not have to pay, but is negotiating so that unnecessary payments won’t be made. Sadly, all parties said no. Their reasons? Firstly, it is against their school / education policy to allow subsidy of that kind. Secondly, waiver of such fees are only allowed for siblings / blood related students. Because the 26 boys are not blood related despite having the same legal guardian, Mr Siva has to pay the extra RM 62.00 per child… by hook or by crook.

May is now a member of the committee of Agathians Shelter and I’m helping them revamp their website to use it as a vessel to tell their story, build their community, and help them become self-sustainable. But self-sustainability involves short-term sacrifices for long-term gains. So until the end of the year, they are in dire need of funds to survive. On top of that, they need school fees amounting to more than RM3000. And they’ll need fees for next year as well, since January is less than 6 months away.

To all my friends – you guys are privileged. While some of you might not be from the upper social strata, we’ve had so many opportunities that these kids have not had. So we’re still privileged. Most of all, we’re on the brink of realizing so much of our potential… and I wonder if these children will ever have a chance to do that. So I urge you to give. Even if it’s just RM10, or RM50. We spend mounts of money on furnishing our wardrobes with clothes we do not need, and buying more than enough shoes and bags to flood our shelves. The pair of heels at Vincci will still be there next month. So please, give.

There’s a contact page above that links directly to my email address – contact me for more details if you wish to contribute to Agathians Shelter to help them in their journey of being one of the few self-sustaining children’s shelters in Malaysia.

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Notes:
Click here to view a copy of the actual memo

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