Manirajan Ramasamy
KUALA LUMPUT: The Education Ministry is biggest recipient in the 2019 Budget, with an allocation of RM60.2 billion or 19.1 per cent of total government spending.
Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said the allocation for education assistance amounted to RM2.9 billion to help the poor, through food supplies, textbooks and cash assistance.
He said the government had allocated RM652 million for the upgrading and maintenance of schools, up from the RM615 million allocated in 2018.
In tabling the budget for next year in the Dewan Rakyat, Lim said RM250 million would be allocated to national schools, with RM50 million each allocated to Chinese and Tamil national type schools, full boarding schools, Mara Junior Science Colleges and government assisted religious schools.
Meanwhile, he said registered pondok schools would have an allocation of RM25 million, national type secondary schools RM15 million and Chinese private secondary schools RM12 million.
The government, said Lim, had also allocated RM100 million for reconstruction of schools nationwide.