KUCHING: Parents with children studying in universities fully supported the government’s initiative to provide university students with free meals and accommodation.
Many students from Sabah and Sarawak studying in universities in Peninsular Malaysia are facing a tough time, having to bear the high cost of living there.
House and room rentals are expensive, as well as the cost of food, transportation and other necessities.
Similar hardships are also being faced by students from Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah studying at universities in Sarawak and Peninsular Malaysia and Sarawak students studying in Sabah.
A retired senior lecturer Hamsiah Saee said she fully agreed for the government to provide free meals and accommodation to university students and also trainee teachers at Teachers Education Institutes (IPGs) and teachers training colleges.
She said even trainee teachers in IPGs and teachers’ colleges faced the same problems ̶ their monthly allowance is not sufficient to cover their daily expenses on food and other needs.
“Lecturers have to contribute to the trainees when they have not received their allowances to pay their daily needs,” Hamsiah said.
Housewife Teresa Mion said their PTPTN loans are not sufficient to cover their expenses which include study materials, meals, accommodation, transportation and other needs.
Hence, Teresa suggested that the government provides monthly living expense allowances to deserving university students.
“There are many students who have to tighten their belts because they have no money to buy meals,” she said, adding that students in such a situation would not be able to focus on their studies.
A senior government officer Roznie Mazlan, 55, also agreed that students be provided with free meals or being paid monthly food allowance.
She also said that the PTPTN money is not enough for her daughter who is studying medicine at a university in Peninsular Malaysia to cover her daily expenses.
“I have to send extra money for her meals and other expenses, the amount which exceeded RM500 every month.
“I believe it is a great burden for parents without stable income,” Roznie said.
A company human resource and administration assistant manager Bernard Aman said universities and colleges should provide free meals and accommodation to their students with the government bearing the costs involved.
He said such initiative should have started long ago, but added that it was still not too late for the government to do so now.
Another government officer Geris Kabol, 55, said as a parent with children studying at university, he fully supported the initiative of the government to provide food allowances for students of both public higher learning institutions (IPTA) and private higher learning institution (IPTS) from the foundation level up to the master level especially those without scholarships and study loans.
“The PTPTN loans are for paying their study fees and other education materials while for their meals and other expenses, their parents have to dig deep into their pocket,” Geris said.
Javelin Peji, 55, said if such facilities and benefits could be given to secondary students, then there was no reason why they could not be extended to university students, especially those coming from poor families.
Port Dickson MP Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had said that the plights of those students must be looked into because this cannot be allowed to happen.
He said the problem needed to be resolved immediately.
Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad had said the government is prepared to provide free food to all university students under the food bank initiative if it has sufficient allocation.
He said this in response to the recent report that there were students who had “to starve and eat less” due to financial constraints and most of them were from the Bottom 40 per cent (B40) income group.
It was reported that the government has organised a food bank through Foodbank Malaysia to help university students who are from the B40 group or poor families so that they can have access to food.
According to Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail, the food bank trucks will transport “surplus food supply” which includes perishable food to the students.
Saifuddin revealed that the foodbank programme has already begun at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) on February 26 this year and Universiti Malaya (UM) on March 7.
According to Saifuddin, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng had said that the ministry will provide a special allocation of around RM3 million to get 14 trucks complete with chillers for the foodbank initiative.
Lim had also confirmed that the trucks will be used to distribute food to B40 students at 20 public universities.
