The affected sports are bowling, squash, archery, table tennis, rugby, cricket, sailing, softball, handball, cross country and chess.

Responding to The Malay Mail’s report headlined ‘Hey, Big Spender’ last Friday, they were perplexed at how the ministry decided to axe the sports by citing tight budgets when the ministry has been spending money unscrupulously in the past. For example, it was revealed in the 2008 Auditor’s General report, among others, that the ministry paid RM250 for a Peacock flower that only costs RM30!

State schools councils are also forgoing the said events and the under-15 category for the same reasons.

Nevertheless, there are others who believe that there is no point organising the sports at the zone and district levels since they are not competed at the national level.

Other States have instructed their technical officers to find their own funding — and even send their students on a donation drive — if they want to host their sports at the State level.

Ironically, the ministry has allocated a budget of RM5.5 million for the Asean Schools Championship taking place on July 12 to 21 in Kuala Lumpur.

A distraught parent, Zainal Hashim, who initiated the ‘Save Malaysian Schools’ Sports and  Malaysian Sports Future’ movement on Facebook, did not mince his words when commenting on the matter.

“What has the ministry done over the first few weeks of the new year? Instead of launching a correct, precise and systematic school sports development policy, they cut down the budget for school sports,” said Zainal.

“Why does the cost to host the Asean Schools Championship have to come at the expense of our local schools sports? If we do not have the money to host that, then why accept to host it?”

Even the international school community feels the setback. Steve Liss, who's in charge of the sports programme of an international school in Penang, said the State meets were something the international  community looked forward to every year.

“We have limited numbers of international schools in Penang. We enjoy the competition that local schools provide but we also enjoy meeting new people outside of our expat community,” said Liss.

“Unfortunately, several of the  sports that we participate in are in danger this year as are most of the under-15 categories.

In the spirit of 1Malaysia, I encourage the ministry to do the right thing and find the  funding needed to return the MSSM programme to what it once was.”

Ader Chan, a former MSSM under-18 hockey player, was dumbfounded by the excuse given by the ministry in slashing the number of sports.

"There are many ways to cut and review costs," said Chan.

"Look at the whole process rather than cutting down, perhaps reduce the number of days of an event, and do away with banners, posters and expensive attires. Also, opening and closing ceremonies can be done on a smaller scale."

Responding to The Malay Mail’s report headlined 'Liar! Liar!' on Jan 25 and the New  Straits Times report on the Education Ministry’s strategy of "killing" grassroots development on Jan 27, the ministry issued a statement last Friday.

It said that "budget cuts are faced by every government agency", dismissed criticism of "killing grassroots sports" and hoped "the situation is temporary as we pray things will get better in the near future".