GOING to school is proving to be a costly affair, with parents of all races grappling with a hike in expenses by more than 10%, a poll by the Invoke Centre for Policy Initiatives has found.

The survey among registered voters showed that the majority of respondents from all three major ethnic groups said they were paying more for items, such as children’s clothing and school expenses, over the past year.

Nearly 64% of respondents in the survey by the PKR-backed research group said they have to spend an extra 10% for these items, while 27% said they spent 6% to 10% more, and the remainder said they only faced price increases of between 1% and 5%.

By ethnicity, 82% of Chinese respondents said they paid more than 10% for these items, while 57% of Malays and 58% of Indians said they spent similarly.

Invoke’s head and PKR vice-president Rafizi Ramli said the survey was an early reflection of the budget cuts in the Education Ministry, which resulted in reduced allocation to schools.

“This resulted in many schools having to collect funds via parent-teacher associations, with parents having to absorb costs previously absorbed by the government.

“The schools have no choice but to pass on regular expenditures, such as paper, printing and training programmes, to families. Families have to fork out a few hundred ringgit per year for each child and that’s why you see a high percentage of respondents feeling the pinch,” said Rafizi.

He said the figure was high for Chinese respondents because some 92% of them sent their children to Chinese-medium schools or Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina (SJKC).

“The SJKC have to be a lot more independent financially than normal public school because they only receive (government) allocations for salary and utilities. They have to bear the rest themselves. 

“The Chinese schools have to rely more on parents and PTA contributions,” said Rafizi.

The survey, conducted via telephone from June 10 to July 14, contacted 1.9 million people using an interactive voice response system, but only 3,783 responded.

Another finding was that 19% of respondents used more than 70% of their household income to service their car and housing loans.

“This is a worrying figure, as I feel that a big percentage of the 19% are young voters,” said Rafizi, adding that Invoke will do a deeper study into these figures soon.

The survey also found that 60% of respondents made just enough for the month’s expenses, while 17% said they did not earn enough. – August 16, 2017.