BY: DESMOND JUDE

This is the year end for parents having school going children, and it is usually at this time of the year that the headaches start for them, as there is not only the school holidays to contend with but also going back to school concerns.

While children should just focus on enjoying schooling there are a growing number, especially children in the B40 group, who have to seek some sort of employment to help their parents and to cover the cost of schooling.

Owing to the spiral in the prices of goods and services, schoolchildren have not been spared as uniforms, shoes, school bags and textbooks cost a lot of money nowadays for parents whose household incomes are already stretched.

Further compounding and complicating the issue is the annual increase in the charges of using school buses for transport and pocket money or allowances for use during recess in the school canteen for meals.

It is very costly to bring up a child and it is therefore imperative that the government work out mechanisms to help alleviate or reduce the cost of sending children to school besides looking into their healthcare needs as well.

The government must take the lead to ensure no student drops out of school because they cannot foot the cost of going to school and the Anwar administration must streamline aid and assistance to reach all Malaysian schoolchildren.

-THE MALAYSIA VOICE

** The views expressed on this opinion is of the writer and not the publisher