.jpg "Selangor Mentri Besar Datuk Amirudin Shari addresses members of the press after launching the Selangor E-Bazaar platform in Shah Alam May 5, 2020. u00e2u20acu201d Picture by Miera Zulyana")
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 4 — The Selangor state government today announced several initiatives to help university students affected by the federal government’s abrupt announcement to postpone this semester’s student intake, including by offering help to get them home through buses.
Following the short notice on October 2 for the postponement of this month’s physical registration of students on campus due to the spike in Covid-19 cases nationwide, the public and politicians alike have started crowdfunding initiatives and offered aid to prevent students who had already travelled to their respective universities to return home.
Today, Selangor Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari noted on Facebook that the uncertainty caused by Covid-19 had affected university students, and announced that the Selangor government intends to lighten their burden during this period.
Amirudin said he had yesterday had a brief discussion via teleconferencing with the caucus of young Selangor state assemblymen aged below 40, and that this resulted in the identification of three categories of university students that the Selangor state government will be assisting.
These three categories are university students who originate from Selangor and are currently studying in Selangor, those who originate from Selangor but who are studying outside of their state, as well as those from other states but who are currently studying in Selangor.
“Assistance for transport to return home, food and face masks and hand sanitisers will be given to university students according to needs,” he said in a post on his Facebook page.
To help university students return to their Selangor homes via buses, Amirudin said that the state government will work with Team Selangor and Gabungan Pelajar Melayu Semenanjung (GPMS).
“We will open registrations to those who need and coordinate with the young assemblymen together with GPMS that has a network of branches nationwide to bring back Selangor students who are studying in institutions of higher learning outside Selangor,” he said, while providing the link to the online form for the transport aid via http://bit.ly/mdekatC.
In the online form, university students are required to state the district where their Selangor home is located, along with the name of their university and whether they need food, face masks, hand sanitisers or other aid.
Working with the same partners, the Selangor state government is also offering lunch and dinner to students stranded in public institutions of higher education in Selangor, but with the requirement to fill up a different online form http://bit.ly/mdekatB and with students also able to indicate if they also need face masks, hand sanitisers and other form of assistance.
University students at Selangor campuses of private institutions of higher learning could also register for aid in the form of face masks and hand sanitisers, and to also indicate if they need any other help via http://bit.ly/mdekatA.
“This is a new initiative by the Selangor government to handle the problem of students stranded due to the announcement by the Ministry of Higher Education to postpone the face-to-face registration in institutions of higher learning,” he said in a video that accompanied the announcement.
The members of the caucus of young Selangor state assemblymen are lawmakers Jamaliah Jamaluddin, Juwairiya Zulkifli, Edry Faizal, Lim Yi Wei, Michelle Ng, Najwan Halimi, Rajiv Risyakaran, Wong Siew Ki, and Chua Wei Keat, while PKR Youth’s undergraduate bureau is also assisting in the efforts to help, a separate statement by Amirudin noted.
National news agency Bernama today also reported Pahang Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Wan Rosdy Wan Ismail urging Pahang-born university students — who live in rented houses off campus and who are affected by the intake postponement — to contact Majlis Mahasiswa Anak Pahang (Mampan) to enable the channelling of aid from the state government.
“The state government is concerned about the welfare of Pahang-born students, who have registered at the public universities and students who came earlier to their rented houses,” he was quoted as saying in reference.
