PUTRAJAYA, Feb 14 — The Ministry of Finance has for the first time approved an additional allocation of RM25 million for the Ministry of Education to upgrade and carry out maintenance works for registered public and private religious schools.
Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said the additional funds took the total allocation in Budget 2019 for upgrading and maintaining schools and educational institutions to RM677 million, up from the RM600 million allocated last year.
“The government cares about the welfare of students, schools and educational institutions so that the quality of education delivered is satisfactory.
“The government also wants to ensure a safe and healthy learning environment for students,” he said during the ceremony to present the cheque for the allocation to Education Minister Maszlee Malik, here today.
Lim said Budget 2019 had also allocated RM25 million for registered pondok schools, RM50 million for registered tahfiz schools and RM15 million for Universiti Islam Malaysia.
Meanwhile, Maszlee said the Ministry of Education, through a committee, would identify potential high-performing public and private religious schools to be given priority under the allocation.
He said a mechanism would be set up to determine which schools needed assistance based on three criteria, namely performance, quality and impact on students.
“This is to enable the schools to become models and examples of quality education,” he said.
Maszlee said although public and private religious schools did not fall directly under the purview of the Ministry of Education, the government wished to help high-performing schools so that students could enjoy quality education.
However, he said among the conditions for receiving the aid was that the school should be registered and not owned by any party or politician, in line with the government’s goal of keeping education free from the influence of political parties. — Bernama
