Declining birth rate won’t spell death of SJKCs, says educationist

Published on: Thursday, February 15, 2024

By: Naveen Prabu, FMT

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Chinese schools in the country have seen an influx of 100,000 non-Chinese students, Kua Kia Soong said, proof of their lasting appeal. (Bernama pic)

PETALING JAYA: Educationist Kua Kia Soong has brushed off concerns about the fate of Chinese vernacular schools (SJKCs) in the country arising from the community’s declining birth rate.

Kua, a former MP, said the Chinese community’s falling birth rate has been a recurring topic of conversation since the 1980s. However, he said one of the main challenges faced by these schools in recent years has been overcrowding.

This is the case even without the “influx of 100,000 non-Chinese students”, he added.

Kua said the popularity of SJKCs even among non-Chinese students, especially the Malays, is proof of their lasting appeal.

“It (the declining birth rate) is not that drastic so as to be a concern to the existence of these schools,” he told FMT.

Instead, Kua said, it presented a silver lining as it would mean smaller class sizes.

“Ideally schools should have one session,” he told FMT, pointing out that most SJKCs operate both a morning and an afternoon session. He also said classes ought to have an optimum number of students.

“But both these conditions do not apply in Chinese schools because they are overcrowded,” said Kua.

He said a smaller annual student cohort would allow SJKCs to switch to one session and run smaller classes.

Kua was responding to Bayan Baru MP Sim Tze Tzin’s query whether SJKCs would be able to withstand the impact of declining birth rates within the ethnic Chinese community.

Sim said only 40,000 Chinese babies were born in 2022, making up less than 10% of the total 423,124 Malaysian babies born that year.

These newborns are expected to enter Standard One in five years’ time and would have 1,200 SJKCs to choose from, meaning an average of 33 new students for each vernacular school.

Sim said such an average would mean only one Standard One class per SJKC. He said many SJKC located in rural areas with less than 150 students have been reclassified as low enrolment schools, or “Sekolah Kurang Murid” (SKM).