KUALA LUMPUR, July 15 — Driving school fees are set to double by August 1 following the implementation of the new driving curriculum, the New Straits Times (NST) reported today.

This has prompted Road Transport Department (RTD) director-general Datuk Seri Ismail Ahmad to meet the national-level driving school association tomorrow, and urge them to compromise on the new price.

“We hope driving institutes will not take advantage of this and be considerate when fixing their fees. I will have to investigate this and discuss it with the driving school association tomorrow to deliberate on costing and other issues.

“I hope we will not have to interfere with the pricing. Worse comes to worst, we may have to conduct a workshop and decide the best solution for all parties,” Ismail told NST.

Despite that, he insisted that the department will leave the price to market forces to promote healthy competition between schools.

This comes as NST claimed that a driving school in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah began charging RM2,000 for driving courses using manually-shifted cars yesterday.

The school was also planning to charge RM2,600 for courses using vehicles with automatic transmissions, said NST.

In response, Malaysian Driving Institute Association president Mat Aris Bakar said he will present the proposed fees to RTD during the meeting after compiling data from schools nationwide.

“The proposed fee will range from RM1,200 to RM1,600 for a manual driving licence. An automatic driving licence is expected to cost more, considering the new sedan cars schools need to purchase for learning purposes,” said Mat Aris

“Fees will vary depending on the location of driving schools. Urban schools charge more compared with rural schools due to higher operating costs.”

He also claimed that the new curriculum requires longer teaching hours and a new teaching method, leading to the increase in fees.

This included one-on-one teaching instead in groups previously, and replacing theory workshops with practical learning on circuits.

“This will lead to the ratio of instructor to learners being reduced from 1:20 to 1:13. Teaching materials will be upgraded and these costs are transferred to the learners,” he added.

National Consumers Complaints Centre director Muhammad Sha’ani Abdullah however said that driving schools might lose money if customers avoid them due to the expensive fees.

“Driving is a necessity nowadays. It shouldn’t be commercialised. The increase of a few hundred ringgit may deter consumers from obtaining a licence. Some may resort to fake licences or just drive without one,” he said.

The new curriculum was announced by RTD in July last year, reportedly to teach Malaysian drivers proper road ethics and counter their “bad attitude”.