Kota Kinabalu: Budget 2023, tabled by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim in the Dewan Rakyat on Friday, was seen to be able to address the issue of poverty in a multidimensional way, involving various things and not just focused on income poverty alone.
Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek said the budget is seen to be on the right track to address poverty in education, including malnutrition among students, lack of devices for digital learning and infrastructure poverty including dilapidated schools.
“Our multidimensional poverty is not talking about just income poverty, but it is across various poverty lines which require a multidimensional solution. One of my aspirations (as Education Minister) is ways to address multidimensional poverty,” she said here, Saturday.
She said this when closing the Digital Learning Convention 2023 at the Universiti Malaysia Sabah, which was also attended by Education Director-General Datuk Pkharuddin Ghazali.
Fadhlina said malnutrition among students, especially involving the underprivileged, had been given attention by the Government through the Supplementary Meal Plan (RMT) in schools, which was being improved.
She said apart from RMT, the Government will also implement a programme to address malnutrition among students at an earlier stage, including at the pre-school level, through the 2023 Budget.
“Seeing our children lacking nutrition is something that is very heartbreaking. Therefore, in this budget, one of the things we fight for is nutrition for our children,” she said. She added that lacking devices due to poverty could affect students’ learning, with learning sessions currently moving faster towards digital learning in the post-Covid-19 pandemic.
“In Budget 2023, 50,000 devices will be distributed to students in educational institutions and schools to ensure students can follow digital learning, and we will distribute the devices to the states,” she said.
Fadhlina said that infrastructure poverty, especially involving dilapidated schools, was given full attention by the Government in Budget 2023, especially in Sabah and Sarawak, to enable students to study in a comfortable and conducive environment.
Budget 2023, among other things, allocates RM1.2 billion to immediately repair 380 dilapidated schools and 400 clinics in poor condition, in addition to increasing the quotation limit for the procurement of repair work to RM1 million, compared with RM500,000 before.
