NIBONG TEBAL – The Majlis Amanah Rakyat (MARA) provides ‘Skim Budi’, a special scheme to assist students from low-income (B40) households, to pursue their studies at the Maktab Rendah Sains MARA (MRSM) .
Rural Development Minister Datuk Seri Rina Harun said through the scheme, students from B40 households, pursuing their studies at MRSM, would be given the opportunity to apply for the assistance to ease their families’ financial burden.
“Through the scheme the financial assistance such as early payment exemption, monthly allowance, school supplies and others will be channelled to selected B40 students.
“The MRSM plays an important role in determining the eligibility of the students and allocates RM2,850 for each student and it involves 2,200 recipients annually,” she told reporters here today.
Earlier, Rina handed over an offer letter to study at Transkrian MRSM to student Muhammad Aiman Afiq Mohd Basri, 12, who excelled in his Ujian Penilaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) examination, at his house at Taman Gunung Puteri, Sungai Bakap here.
Rina said for this year the admission to MRSM was announced early to help parents making early preparation for their children’s schooling session.
“Hence, we also have the time to provide assistance to B40 students so they can continue their studies at MRSM,” she said.
She also said for this schooling session, the admission quota for students from the B40 households for MRSM was almost fulfilled, with 68 per cent of the students from the B40 households had already received their offer letters for the 2019 school session that would start on Jan 14.
Rina also refuted the allegation that the government had marginalised students from the middle-income (M40) and high-income (T20) households from studying at MRSM.
“We don’t reject all applications (students from the M40 and T20 households), they are also given the opportunity, except this time we try to bring the MRSM back to its original goal. In fact, for students’ admission to MRSM, the quota for M40 is at 20 per cent while 10 per cent for T20 households,” she said. – BERNAMA
