KUCHING: Tabung Amanah Bakun (TAB) has approved 13 applications for assistance from Penans students who studied in Centre of Technical Excellence Sarawak (CENTEXS) for 2017 session.
In total, a sum of 55 Penan students has been assisted from 2015 to 2016.
This was stated by Assistant Minister for River Transportation and Safety Liwan Lagang during the One-Off cheque presentation ceremony for student of 2016/2017 session sponsored by Tabung Amanah Bakun at CENTEXS in Jalan Sultan Tengah here, yesterday.
Tabung Amanah Bakun has created a Penan Community Education Committee chaired by Liwan to assist Penan children in Belaga to further their education to a higher level.
Meanwhile, Sarawak Energy Berhad (SEB) has given a RM200,000 grant to Penan Community Education Committee.
This was stipulated in a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between SEB and TAB in 2015.
Earlier, Liwan who is also Belaga assemblyman said “we are proud that five of our Penan youths were in Labuan for their job training (welding in 6G-level), 16 were in CENTEXS which are in the process to get 6G level and 18 youths were in Giatmara.”
“In the last three years, the ministry has brought the Penan students who were still waiting or have obtained their Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) to Kuching and taken them to Institute of Teacher Education (IPG), Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS), Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) and other technical colleges to expose and to look at themselves the opportunities available for them.
“Last year, we have took a total of 175 Penan youths to ‘Jom Masuk U’ programme and all of them have managed to get into universities like UiTM, polytechnics, UNIMAS, IPG Batu Lintang and community colleges and I am very proud of them.
“Programmes like these are unlikely to succeed without the help of SEB and SEB have run a good job in assisting our youth in Belaga,” he added.
