All Tamil schools have received aid

Minister: None were denied govt funding

THE 524 Tamil schools in the country will continue to receive appropriate funds for infrastructure, sports and education development.

Deputy Education Minister Datuk P. Kamalanathan denied that some schools had been refused aid or were put on hold, saying there was no Tamil school in Malaysia that had not received some form of government aid.

This year, the Government provided an allocation of RM84.52mil for Tamil schools, of which over RM24.51mil has been spent on development projects, including building new schools, additional school blocks and preschools, as well as land acquisition.

He said a special maintenance allocation of RM50mil was given this year to Tamil schools for infrastructure development.

Under phase one of the special maintenance allocation, RM25mil was distributed to Tamil schools last month while the remaining will be given out next month, he said to a question by V. Sivakumar (DAP-Batu Gajah).

Kamalanathan said an additional RM10mil allocation for 50 Tamil preschools will be given out.

To another question from Sivakumar, on the status of seven new Tamil schools, he said SJKT Ko. Saranggabani in Paya Besar, Kedah, was complete and the school session can begin next year, while five more schools were in the construction process and the last one was only recently approved by the state government. He also noted that the ministry was focusing on sports development in certain Tamil schools with 15 schools identified.

Meanwhile, Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Dr Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki said the proposed National Tahfiz Education Policy will consider the safety of tahfiz as its main priority after approval from the Council of Rulers.