The government of Malaysia has allocated RM 24 million as internet data plan assistance for 3,20,396 students from the B40 category to help them cope with the challenges from the novel coronavirus pandemic, reports state news agency Bernama.
The Minister of Education Datuk Noraini Ahmad announced at the launch of the plan on October 30 at the ministry in Putrajaya.
The allocation will be distributed to the students classified into several need groups.
According to the minister, under the initiative, some 225,784 SIM cards have been distributed to a number of the students in collaboration with telecommunication companies and other bodies.
‘The rest 94,612 students will receive cash for the purpose of purchasing data plans,’ said the minister.
The education minister further said that 5,965 students would be receiving free laptops, 2,700 students would receive cash assistance for the same purpose while 300 others would be getting financial loan assistance to buy laptops at special price.
The total expenditure of purchasing laptops for students is estimated to be at RM13 million, added the minister.
Amidst the pandemic, students from the B40 category are under additional economic burden to continue online PdP.
To help ease the financial load of students, the Higher Education Ministry had offered to provide cash assistance of RM50 each to all new students for the session 2020-2021 which totals RM3.8 million.
From the cash initiative, some 76,153 students will be benefitted, suggests the minister.
To note, Malaysians are categorized into three different income groups : T20, M40 and B40. These refer to income groups in Malaysia, where B40 represents the bottom 40% of income earners, M40 the middle 40% and T20 the top 20%. These groups are further broken down into tiers, such as B1, B2, B3, and so on, according to the Wikipedia.
