Kota Kinabalu: A total of 12,514 Form Six students in Sabah received the PerantiSiswa initiative since 2022, said Minister of Science, Technology, and Innovation Datuk Dr. Mohd Arifin Mohd Arif.
“The PerantiSiswa initiative under the 2022 Budget is spearheaded by the Ministry of Communications and Digital (KKD) in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance (MOF) and the Ministry of Higher Education (KPT).
“The State Education Department (JPNS) is not directly involved in managing the distribution of student devices. Within the Ministry of Education (KPM), recipients of PerantiSiswa are among Form Six eligible students,” he said.
Mohd Arifin said the distribution of PerantiSiswa began in 2022, and from 2023 until March 2024, there have been no new distributions made.
“So far it has not been ascertained when this PerantiSiswa will be given again among Form Sixth students, especially in Sabah,” he said when answering a question from the Sulabayan assemblyman Datuk Dr. Jaujan Sambakong.
Jaujan asked how far the implementation of the PerantiSiswa programme is and the eligibility criteria for students to receive the devices.
Mohd Arifin said that the Sabah Government, through the Office of the State Deputy Secretary (Special Duties), has also implemented the Bantuan Ihsan Komputer (Baik) Initiative for a total of 560 IPT (Higher Education Institution) students in 2022 and 740 IPT students in 2023.
“This assistance aims to help students in need of learning.
“Among the eligibility criteria for students to receive Baik assistance are that IPT students must be Sabah natives and require a laptop for learning purposes; one laptop per household head only; parents or guardians of the student must be from the e-Kasih group; and applicants must provide justification for the need for a laptop,” he said.
Responding to additional questions from Sebatik Assemblyman Datuk Hassan A Gani Pg Amir, Mohd Arifin said Sabah students residing in Peninsular Malaysia are also eligible to receive Baik initiative and the criteria are the same.
He said Sabah students receiving this initiative involve 70 institutions nationwide.
