PUTRAJAYA: The Finance Ministry today handed over a funding of RM25 million to Education Ministry for the upgrading and maintenance of registered private Islamic religious schools in the country.
Its Minister Lim Guan Eng presented the mock cheque to Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik during a brief function at the Education Ministry’s office here.
The funding was an addition to the RM625 million allocation for the upgrading works for 11 types of schools in the country announced in the 2019 Budget.
Lim said this was the first time that privately-owned religious schools would receive funding from the federal government.
“The funding showed government’s commitment to help schools and education institutions inclusively.
“Finance Ministry has previously given RM15 million to Universiti Islam Malaysia (UIM), a non-profit private tertiary education institution,” he said in his speech.
He added that during the tabling of the 2019 Budget, the federal government had announced a RM625 million allocation, compared to RM600 million allocated in the 2018 Budget by the previous government.
Of the amount, RM25 million was given to registered religious 'pondok' schools, RM50 million to registered 'tahfiz' schools, he added.
He said the government had allocated RM1.2 billion for Islamic affairs and activities.
“This proves that the government cares about the welfare of students, schools and education institutions in the country, to elevate the quality of education to a satisfactory level.
“Apart from that, the government wants to ensure a good learning environment for students,” he added.
Maszlee, in his speech, said the ministry would set up a committee to identify schools that could be turned into high-achieving schools.
“A school should possess three criteria to receive the funding, which include performance, quality and ability to give impact to students.
“This will enable the school to be a model school for quality education,” he added.
He also stressed that to receive the funding, schools must be registered and should not be owned by any political parties or politicians, in line with government’s vision to separate education from the influence of political parties.
Earlier, Lim when asked on the outstanding debt of Kedai Buku 1Malaysia (KB1M) or 1Malaysia Bookstore, amounting to RM1.4 million, said it was not under the Finance Ministry.
He said the management of the bookstore comes under the purview of the Education Ministry, but admitted that the Malaysian Institute of Translation and Books (ITBM) which managed the KB1M was under the Finance Ministry.