The costs of private education

Our former PM, Dr Mahathir Mohd said enrollment of bumiputeras in private institutions of higher learning was low at 10% because they cannot afford the fees and that is why the government had given attention and more places to bumiputeras in public universities.

The reason why non-Bumis constitute more than 90% of private colleges and universities is because they could not get a place in government institutions. Bumis' enrollment are low in private institutions because they get to enter government ones easily. One example, a Malay Muslim customer who had a combined of income of more than 8k told me their daughter was offered matriculation and later direct to a government university without any problems so why should they pay the high fees demanded by private colleges? I am a non-Bumi and I had to send both my children through private colleges using my credit card advances and loans from banks which almost doubled the cost of their private education. It cost me about 50k each including interest to finance their education and even then, they had to attend evening classes and help out at our family food business during the day to finance their education.

Most of the time, we had no spare funds left for eating out and mostly ate leftovers from the unsold food items. Now, after 5-6 years and a lot of sacrifice and hard work, both my children are professionally qualified and earning an intern's salary whilst learning the ropes and gaining the required experience.

So, Dr Mahathir, don't you dare generalise all non-Bumis as being financially capable. In our daily life, we now find that our Malay Muslim friends and neighbours are all better off than us. They are either government officers or government registered contractors. They drive Hi-Luxes and even Rextons whilst we drive only a Kancil. They have their dinners at KFCs and restaurants whilst we ate leftovers. Try for once to advise your own kind to work hard, be thrifty, independent, committed, focussed and disciplined rather than forever depending on the government.

from here.