Terengganu UMNO Youth calls on state govt to expedite emergency education aid to facilitate PdPR process

Terengganu UMNO Youth chief Tengku Haphiz Tengku Putera said it should be implemented as soon as possible with a tablet each for a family with at least two school-going children.

He said certain criteria should be set for recipients of the aid, with priority to be given to families, such as those in the B40 group in the rural areas and with children sitting for major examinations.

"This emergency allocation can be obtained under the Emergency Ordinance by making some amendments to some items in the 2021 state budget that was passed last year.

"For example, the allocation for education infrastructure, such as for the construction of Sekolah Rendah Islam Darul Iman or upgrading of the Terengganu Quran College can be shelved and the allocation transferred for the education emergency aid," he said in a statement today.

Tengku Haphiz said the aid is much needed because many parents complained that they could not afford to provide tablets, laptops or even smartphones for their children to follow the PdPR session.

"This constraint involves families that have more than two school-going children. Basically, students do need a tablet each to ensure they are able to follow all the learning modules.

"The Terengganu Sejahtera Education Fund can also play a key role in addressing this issue,” he said, adding that the RM50 million fund would at least help 65 per cent of the 150,000 school students in the state.

He said the State UMNO Youth is also prepared to share its experience in managing the E Book, a school laptop programme implemented in Terengganu since 2009.