KUCHING, Oct 11: The federal government will be allocating RM783 million for the repair of dilapidated schools particularly in Sarawak and Sabah in 2020.
Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng, during the National Budget 2020 announcement today, said this would be on top of the general allocations for the various schools throughout the country.
All in all, he informed that the Ministry of Education (MoE) would be receiving an allocation of RM60.2 billion for 2020 to fix and upgrade schools throughout the country.
“Hence, to ensure that our existing schools deliver a more conducive learning environment for our children, the government will increase the allocation for school maintenance and upgrading works from RM652 million as announced in Budget 2019 to RM735 million in 2020,” he said.
He elaborated that national Schools would be allocated RM300 million, national-type Chinese Schools (RM50 million), national-type Tamil Schools (RM50 million), boarding schools (RM50 million), Mara Junior Science Colleges (RM50 million), government-aided religious schools (RM50 million), missionary schools RM50 million, tahfiz schools (RM50 million), people’s religious schools and private religious schools (RM25 million), registered religious pondok schools (RM25 million), national-type secondary schools (RM20 million), and independent Chinese secondary schools (RM15 million).
Lim also assured that next year more schools would be constructed in Langkawi, Kulai, Hulu Langat, Putrajaya, Pasir Gudang, Tumpat, Marang and Johor Bahru.
For national schools, he revealed that the government would further allocate RM23 million to ensure that these school facilities would be disabled-friendly.
“This is in line with the ‘zero reject’ policy introduced by the MoE, whereby no disabled child shall be denied an education due to his or her disability,” he emphasised.
“The government will also increase the amount of utility assistance to include sewerage services, with an additional allocation of RM12 million benefiting 2,000 government-aided schools,” he added.— DayakDaily
