Set up education endowment fund to help needy students: Johor Umno

KUALA LUMPUR: Johor Umno today suggested that the government establish an education wakaf (endowment) fund to assist needy young Malays to pursue higher studies.
Its Segamat division chief, Zahari Sarip said the financial assistance from this wakaf fund could be changed into scholarships as a reward or sign of appreciation, especially for those who are the first in their poor families to go to university.
"Johor Umno wishes to propose that the wakaf concept be expanded to include education wakaf because alhamdulillah (praise be to God), our Muslim community has started to realise the importance of wakaf.
"We hope the Education Ministry will take up this role and task to get the community to carry out education wakaf programmes as we believe these could particularly assist young Malays to pursue tertiary education," he said when proposing the motion on education and religion at the Umno General Assembly 2017.
Zahari said the education wakaf fund could be an alternative source of financial assistance to the education loans such as those provided by the National Higher Education Fund Corporation.
He also suggested that the government not sideline schools in the interior areas, especially with regard to the 21st century smart classroom transformation process, besides ensuring adequate WiFi facilities at all schools.
"The Education Ministry should look at how to assist schools in the remote areas as we don't want only the urban and suburban schools to have such smart classrooms, as the National Transformation 2050 (TN 50) plan does not chooses who and where," he said.
Meanwhile, Kelantan Umno representative, Amran Arifin said Kelantan was prepared to set up a Quran learning university as the state could provide the land for the purpose.
Supporting the motion, he said Kelantan Umno also urged the government to provide an avenue for tahfiz students to pursue higher education after going through the Tahfiz Integrated Curriculum at the secondary school level.
"Kelantan Umno has also set a mission to take over the state in the upcoming 14th general election (GE14). I call on the people of Kelantan to give us the chance through GE14 to develop the state with our many plans," he said. — Bernama