KUCHING: Sarawak Foundation’s education schemes and programmes benefited more than 90,000 individuals and 239 schools involving a total expenditure of more than RM150 million last year.
“The foundation continues to provide educational aid in the form of scholarships, scholarship loans and other school programmes and assistance,” it said in a statement on today (June24).
“More than 40,000 students received scholarships totalling RM54.25 million for the academic year 2023.”
Scholarship loans meanwhile benefited more than 11,000 students with a total disbursement of RM96.01 million.
Students who excelled academically received a total incentive of RM12 million on their scholarship loans, benefiting about 1,167 students.
“Aside from that, the Sarawak Foundation provided assistance through programmes such as the free transportation service for school students that has benefited over 6,000 students in Kuching and Miri with an expenditure of RM5.7 million,”it said.
The tuition class programme benefited a total 157 secondary schools, involving more than 20,000 students, with the Sarawak Foundation spending a total of RM4.79 million for the programme.
“In 2023, an amount of RM2.25 million was disbursed to 53 HIPERS (High-Performance Rural Schools) for their yearly academic performance enhancement activities which involved more than 6,000 students,”it said.
“Based on the recent SPM 2023 results, the Average School Grade Performance (GPS) of HIPERS secondary schools has shown a positive improvement where 21 out of the 26 schools have shown an improvement in GPS between 1 per cent to 17 per cent compared to the SPM performance in 2022 where only 13 HIPERS secondary schools showed an improvement in GPS,”it said.
This, it added, shows that the programmes implemented have had a positive impact on the performance of schools.
Last year, a total of RM1.01 million went towards enabling 621 SPM and STPM graduates to participate in the Free English Improvement Programme at IPTS owned by the Foundation.
It also sponsored a total of 106 Sarawak students (33 students studying in Labuan and 42 students in the peninsula) and 31 Sabah students studying in Sarawak under the Exchange Programme Scholarship with a total expenditure of RM 0.96 million.
A total of 82 Focus Schools (low-performing secondary schools) throughout the state were also given special grants to organise specific programmes to improve the School Average Grade.
Each school received a grant of RM7,000 with a total grant of RM574,000.
In 2023, the Sarawak Foundation was actively involved in more than 200 activities with strategic partners throughout Malaysia.
Community Education Programmes such as My University My Choice, Sarawak Education Expo and Career and Education Day attracted over 35,000 participants and visitors, involving a total expenditure of RM2.03 million.
The Sarawak Foundation also collaborates with the Jabatan Pendidikan Negeri Sarawak (JPNS) as a strategic partner in a few programmes namely Teacher’s Excellence Programme, Pedagogy Workshop for Science and Mathematics, Critical and Analytical Workshop for Middle Leader Team and more with an expenditure amounting to over RM700,000.
There are two new initiatives in Year 2024, namely the Free Laptop and Free Book Voucher with a total budget of RM15 million and RM17.5 million respectively.
In addition, there are three existing initiatives with an additional budget allocated for Year 2024. This includes the School Uniform Assistance Programme, Local Scholarship Programme and Free Tuition Programme.
An additional RM13.0 million has been allocated to the three programmes.
In terms of education infrastructure development, as at April 2024, there are three newly completed projects namely Kolej Laila Taib in Mukah, Centexs Lawas and Yayasan Sarawak International Secondary School (Sentah Segu).
“There are five ongoing development projects namely the development of Centexs Dalat, Leadership Institute for Sarawak Civil Service, Phase 2 of renovation works for Yayasan Sarawak International Secondary School (Petra Jaya), the Yayasan Sarawak International Secondary School (YSISS) in Sibu and Miri,” it said, adding the YSISS in Bintulu is currently in its planning stage.
Throughout Year 2023 until April 2024, the Foundation has executed a total of nine Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).
The strategic partners are Petronas, Malaysia LNG Sdn Bhd (MLNG), Sunway Group, Malaysian Maritime Academy Sdn Bhd, Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia, SME Aerospace Sdn Bhd, Honest Development Sdn Bhd, Universiti Teknologi MARA and Dell Global Business Centre Sdn Bhd.
As the foundation moves forward in tandem with the Sarawak government’s digital economy ambitions, it hoped Sarawakians will continue to gain knowledge in digitalisation, regardless of the field of study they intend to pursue.
The foundation will continue to strive in providing assistance, advancing the development of quality human capital in Sarawak, it added.
