By Balqis Jazimah Zahari
The Perak government launched Student Self-Sufficiency Assistance (Bantuan Sara Diri Mahasiswa) and Student Emergency Assistance (Bantuan Kecemasan Mahasiswa) amounting to RM2 million today.
The aid channel is one of the programmes under Teacher Saarani’s Tuition (Tuisyen Cikgu Saarani – TCS).
Perak Menteri Besar and Datuk Seri Saarani Mohamad said the allocation increased by RM1.4 million compared to RM600,000 last year.
“It covers an allocation of RM1.5 million for the Bantuan Sara Diri Mahasiswa and RM0.5 million for Bantuan Kecemasan Mahasiswa,” he said at a press conference in conjunction with the launch of the aid at the Perak Menteri Besar Office today.
Saarani said that Bantuan Sara Diri Mahasiswa is divided into two phases, the first of which will start today until March 10, while the second phase will be in August or September.
“This Bantuan Sara Diri Mahasiswa involves giving between RM500 to RM2,000 to full-time students in the second semester and above for a Diploma, Bachelor’s Degree, Master’s Degree and Doctor of Philosophy Degree at any Institute of Higher Education (IPT) recognised by the Department of Public Service (JPA) and Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA),” he said.
He said Bantuan Sara Diri Mahasiswa is an initiative to help students who have been struck by calamity or disaster with aid not exceeding RM5,000, depending on the emergency case, which is subject to terms and conditions.
According to him, all qualified Perak students can apply and fill out the form at the link, www.eheyns.com.my/bantuan-khas-mahasiswa.
Meanwhile, Saarani also announced that the state government will continue another programme under the TCS initiative which is the Bantuan Kecemasan Mahasiswa programme amounting to RM2.8 million.
He said the allocation will benefit 28,281 students from 256 schools across the state.
According to him, the assistance involved 24,694 candidates for the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia(SPM), 2,484 candidates for the Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia (STPM); 75 candidates for the Sijil Tinggi Agama Malaysia (STAM) and 28 candidates for the Sijil Vokasional Malaysia (SVM) examination.
“Through this programme, all exam candidates involved will be given lunch assistance for 20 days, which is when attending additional classes or intensive classes until the entire day of the exam,” he said.
He added, that this programme was fully funded by five Perak government-related companies (GLCs), namely the Lembaga Air Perak (LAP) and the State Agricultural Development Corporation (SADC) which each contributed RM1 million, the Menteri Besar Corporation (MB Inc) (RM700,000 ), the State Secretary’s Corporation (SSI) (RM500,000) and the Perbadanan Kemajuan Negeri Perak (PKNP) (RM200,000).
“The balance from all these donations will be used to make various other educational programmes successful under the TCS initiative,” he said.
