KOTA KINABALU: The Education Ministry must refrain from imposing a 30% Bumiputera equity quota on existing tuition centres in Sabah, says Parti Warisan vice president Datuk Junz Wong.
Wong warned that forcing established education providers to restructure their equity, management, and ownership arrangements would disrupt long-standing family-run businesses and undermine the quality of local education.
He urged the ministry to immediately clarify whether centres failing to meet the threshold would be denied licence renewals starting in 2027.
“The focus should be on whether teachers are qualified, students are safe, and centres comply with regulations, not on the ethnic composition of the company’s shareholders,” the Tanjung Aru assemblyman said in a statement on Saturday (Sept 19).
Wong stressed that federal policies must accommodate Sabah’s distinct demographic landscape, warning that applying blanket equity requirements without clear regional guidelines raises serious concerns for local operators.
While supporting broader efforts to increase Bumiputera economic participation, Wong argued that forced corporate restructuring is the wrong approach for the education sector. Instead, he called on the government to assist operators through teacher development programs, performance incentives, and regulatory support.
“Tuition centres should be judged by the quality of education they provide, not by the race of those who own them,” Wong said.
Meanwhile, the Melaka Action Group for Parents in Education (Magpie) and independent scholar Sharifah Munirah Alatas said the move was unfair to operators who have built their business over years, and fails to actually encourage Bumiputera entrepreneurship.
Sharifah said this policy is absurd and risks racialising the education sector, adding that it only exemplifies how distracted the education ministry is from more pertinent issues.
“This directive is another example of how our government gets bogged down in trivial administrative interventions. It fails to focus on the structural obligations, such as teacher training, administrative bloat, overwork, and other classroom challenges,” she said in a Facebook post.
She said the 30% equity condition merely distributes earned benefits to passive groups instead of actually birthing Bumiputera entrepreneurs in the sector.
“Throughout economic history, genuine entrepreneurs have never been the product of affirmative action enforced willy-nilly.
“Rather, they emerge organically through personal struggle, market discipline, and risk-taking. When aspiring entrepreneurs fail, they don’t run to the state for bailouts.
Neither should the state offer any. When they fail, they should lick their wounds, pick themselves up, and then try again,” she said.
Magpie president Mak Chee Kin said the government should provide financing, training and grants if it wants to boost Bumiputera participation in tuition centres.
“Is it fair to require existing businesses, some of which have operated successfully for decades, to surrender 30% of their ownership simply to continue operating?“These entrepreneurs invested their own money, took risks, employed teachers, and built their centres from the ground up. They should not be penalised by a policy introduced years after they established their businesses.
“Magpie urges the government to reconsider this policy and, most importantly, protect existing tuition centres that have been operating legally and responsibly for many years,” he said in a statement.
Mak also questioned whether the Bumiputera equity rule could be extended to other sectors little by little.
Earlier this week, Petaling Jaya MP Lee Chean Chung said a ministry guideline purportedly stated that tuition centres must have 30% Bumiputera equity in order to have their licences renewed next year.
Lee urged the ministry to explain the basis for the move and to consult operators and give them clear guidance on the implementation of the policy.