Asli parents, they felt the pinch when they were told by the local JHEOA offices that much of the educational subsidies they were used to would not be forthcoming that year. Also, several transport contractors stopped ferrying Orang Asli children to school as they were told that the allocation for the year was not there, or not there yet. The impact of the withdrawal of the education subsidies in 2000 can be dramatically demonstrated by looking at the Orang Asli dropout rates at the primary level given in Table 5. From a high of 71.6 per cent in 1985, we see that the rate of Orang Asli dropping out has been consistently declining over the years until it reached a commendable rate of 15.1 per cent in 1999. If not anything else, this gradual decline in the dropout rate shows either the success of government programmes at keeping Orang Asli children in school or else that the attitudes of the Orang Asli parents had changed for the better, or a combination of both. However, for the year 2000, there was a sudden upsurge in the dropout rate. From 15.1 per cent in the preceding year, it more than doubled to 42.9 per cent in 2000. Sadly, as we noted earlier, the dropout rate further increased to 43.9 per cent in 2003. It is clearly evident that the sudden jump, and the continuing increase, in the dropout rate are directly related to the full or partial withdrawal of educational subsidies for some Orang Asli schoolchildren. Table 4 itself shows that the allocation for school uniforms continues to be slashed over the years despite increasing enrolment figures—and school uniforms represents the single-most important expense item for Orang Asli parents at the beginning of the school year (assuming that their children continue to be eligible for textbook subsidies). It is perhaps pertinent to remind ourselves that the stated policy of the government, through the JHEOA, is to grant financial assistance for education to Orang Asli children whose parent’s household income is 54 ORANG ASLI – RIGHTS, PROBLEMS & SOLUTIONS