SCHOOL FUND-RAISING PROJECTS (Guidelines)

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SCHOOL FUND-RAISING PROJECTS:

(Guidelines): 4.

Mr Ang Mong Seng asked the Acting Minister for Education whether there are any regulations or guidelines on fund-raising projects for school principals to follow in order to spare students from committing too much of their study time, effort and money to such projects.

The Minister of State for Education (Mr Chan Soo Sen) (for the Acting Minister for Education): Mr Speaker, Sir, principals are responsible for deciding on fund-raising activities of their schools. They can decide on the type and timing of the fund-raising activities. However, MOE does have guidelines to ensure that students are not committed to too many of such activities. As a guide, each student should not participate in more than two fund-raising activities a year, and that is in addition to Sharity Day for primary school students and Youth Day Collection for secondary school students, both of these collections are meant for the Community Chest.

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Mr Ang Mong Seng (Hong Kah): Can I ask the Minister of State whether he can enlighten the House in the years 2002 and 2003, the total number of fund-raising projects and the total sums we had raised, and how many are for school projects and how many are for outside the school projects?

Mr Chan Soo Sen: As I said, principals are responsible for deciding on fund-raising activities of their schools. The Ministry does not require them to seek approval from the Ministry before they proceed. All they need to do is just observe the general guidelines. So I am afraid we have no figures on how many fund-raising activities overall and how much has been raised. But we do believe that all these activities are for the benefit of the schools.