PUTRAJAYA: The milk programme in schools will be continued as it has already been allocated for in the 2019 Budget, says the Education Ministry.
The ministry, in a statement on Wednesday, said the programme will however be fine-tuned to ensure that it reaches its objectives by tackling all weaknesses including its acquisition process.
“The ministry admits there were leakages and weaknesses in the execution of the school milk programme under the previous administration.
“Thus, the ministry will undertake efforts to investigate and single out the weaknesses as well as those responsible. Investigations will be carried out so that similar issues will not recur,” said the ministry in a statement on Wednesday.
The ministry also gave its assurance that all previous weaknesses would be resolved as soon as possible. It said the implementation of the school milk programme would be done in a more transparent manner in line with the new government’s policies that stresses on the aspects of accountability and integrity.
Based on the Education Ministry’s website, the school milk programme aims to meet several objectives including encouraging the milk drinking habit among primary school pupils under the paid milk scheme, as well as supplying milk to underprivileged and undernourished pupils via the free milk scheme.
On Tuesday, Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik had said that the government would be reviewing the implementation of the 1Malaysia Milk Programme before deciding on whether it would proceed with the programme next year.
The National Union of the Teaching Profession (NUTP) had recently queried on the status of the programme, saying that milk have not been distributed in schools since January despite already being allocated for in the 2018 Budget.
The school milk programme was first introduced in 1983.