KUALA LUMPUR: The Education Ministry will receive RM60.2 billion under Budget 2019 – the biggest allocation ever in the federal government’s spending plan.
Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng yesterday announced that RM652 million is allocated for all school types in the country.
“Chinese, Tamil, boarding schools, MARA Science Colleges, tahfiz schools and religious schools on government assistance have all been allocated RM50 million for operations and upgrading purposes,” he said yesterday when tabling Budget 2019 at the parliament.
Another RM25 million for registered “Sekolah Pondok”, RM15 million for conforming schools, and RM12 million for independent Chinese schools, according to a report by the Malay Mail.
Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir, who wanted to become the Minister of Education before but was not allowed, said that the huge RM60.24 billion allocations for schools and education by PH are due to the fact that the future generation needs to have more knowledge.
He said the government has prioritised education to prepare students to face the future.
“Education is extremely important.
“I wanted to be Education Minister, but they didn’t allow me to,” he joked.
Dr Mahathir stressed that the knowledge field has changed considerably and that nowadays students need to learn more things.
“Before, they read about the history of British empire, the geography of England, but they did not study on our own geography.
“But now we have to learn about IT, technology, science, mathematics, algorithms… all these things we need to know or we will be left behind,” he said.- Malaysia World News.
