Idris (centre) with Higher Education Department director- general Prof Asma Ismail (right) and ICGPA coordinating committee chairman, Prof Madya Dr Jaafar Jantan at the launching of the Rubrik ICGPA book in Putrajaya. — Bernama photo
PUTRAJAYA: Students and bookshops found misusing the 1Malaysia Book Voucher (BB1M) face being blacklisted, warned Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh.
He said his ministry had received complaints about students allegedly selling the BB1Ms to bookstores to obtain cash, and would conduct a holistic investigation on the matter.
“We will carry out a probe soon to determine the number of bookshops that have taken advantage of the vouchers by misusing them,” he said when commenting on reports that the vouchers were misused to reporters after launching the book ‘Rubrik Purat Nilai Gred Keseluruhan Berintegrasi (iCGPA)’ here yesterday.
According to media reports, students sell the vouchers, valued at RM250 each, to bookshops for RM190 and RM230 without buying anything. The vouchers are given to students by the government to ease the burden of purchasing books.
According to the report, the bookshop will use the vouchers to buy books that are not well received and claim the money from the government, and at the same time, will sell the books at a second hand bookshop for profit.
Idris said students who are blacklisted for abusing their BB1M would not receive a voucher next year while blacklisted bookshops will not be able to sell books that received BB1M in the future.
There were 1.2 million BB1M recipients this year involving an allocation of RM300 million.
On the launch of the book ‘Rubrik iCGPA’, Idris said the book would be a source of reference, support and guidance to university teaching staff to implement iCGPA at their respective universities.
At present, one faculty in five universities have implemented iCGPA, namely Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT), Universiti Malaysia Kelantan (UMK) and Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP). — Bernama