Shafie (second left) and Yusof witness Jamalul (left) handing over the Yayasan Sabah’s RM1 million assistance for UMS students to Kamaruddin.
KOTA KINABALU: The State Government launched the new Education and Innovation Ministry to improve the education system in Sabah, said Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal.
Shafie said however this cannot be done without the help of educational institutions, parents and the students themselves.
He reiterated that one of the efforts to help the less fortunate families was the Yayasan Sabah one-off assistance for students at higher learning institutions like Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) and secondary schools in Sabah.
“We have to erase that sort of ‘I can’t further my studies because I don’t have the money (mentality). I think we need to ensure every Sabahan, where possible, will be able to further their studies despite coming from a very poor family.
“I think it is indeed very important for us to make it a success to enable the young people to have better education,” he said at the Yayasan Sabah One-off Educational Assistance and Secondary School Back to School Assistance Presentation ceremony in UMS here yesterday.
“It must be a collective effort and it must be a very coordinated one, a very comprehensive approach not only done by the government.
“Of course, we will be the prime mover, the engine for these kinds of success to ensure that we can have better facilities for our young Sabahans to have a better education.
“But we need the support and help from institutions, teachers, lecturers, as well as parents, and the students themselves too.
“If it is done as a mass movement, it will enable our children to be successful in education. It cannot be done in a silo, independently. It must be a collective effort.
“I am confident we can help the community that are not well-off, especially the community that are not only in the urban areas but also in rural areas,” he added.
Some 1000 UMS students and 300 secondary school students from throughout the Kota Kinabalu area received the Yayasan Sabah One-Off assistance at the event here yesterday.
According to Yayasan Sabah director Datuk Jamalul Kiram Mohd Zakaria, 19,093 students had benefited from the Yayasan Sabah Higher Learning sponsorship or bursaries in various fields amounting to RM327.12 million.
He added 73,245 had received RM112.09 million in secondary school sponsorship or bursaries.
Meanwhile, Jamalul said the RM10 million One-off assistance was introduced on September 21, 2018.
“Until now, RM766.5 million educational sponsorship for the secondary and higher learning sponsorship have been given to the children of Sabah,” he said.
The RM1,000 assistance was presented to 1000 UMS students yesterday whilst a RM200 assistance were presented to 300 students in the B40 category from 10 schools around Kota Kinabalu.