KOTA KINABALU: The Higher Education Ministry should draw up guidelines of prerequisites for education aid.
Kuamut assemblyman Datuk Masiung Banah said this ensure that only deserving groups will get the help they need to further their education.
"Subsidy or scholarship offers should have a clear framework and a selection process, where the deserving groups need to be helped so that the gap between the rich and the poor can be bridged," he said in a statement.
He said there were instances that children from rich families received highly-subsidised education opportunities, while children from poor backgrounds did not get the same opportunities.
"This is not fair. It needs to be changed because B40 students who are brilliant and talented in education have very few opportunities as compared to the rich," he said in a statement.
Masiung also urged the state and federal governments to create a new framework for the subsidy to be presented to the cabinet.
He said this must be done to prove to the people that the government is being fair to the poor.
Masiung cited an example of one course in public university which is subsidised a lot by the government.
He said the tuition fee for the Bachelor of Software Engineering at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), which costs RM88,152 for a four-year study period, but through the subsidy, students only have to pay RM7,520.
The subsidy covers all students entering the 2024/2025 academic year, including those from high-income families.
On Tuesday, Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor has voiced his support for the idea that scholarships and educational aid should be focused on students in need.
Hajiji was responding to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's suggestion that the government might reconsider supporting wealthy students in top government-funded schools.
Higher Education Ministry, guidelines, prerequisites, education, Kuamut, assemblyman, Datuk Masiung Banah said this ensure that only deserving groups will get the help they need to further their education.
"Subsidy or scholarship offers should have a clear framework and a selection process, where the deserving groups need to be helped so that the gap between the rich and the poor can be bridged," he said in a statement.