KUALA LUMPUR: The Ministry of Education (MoE) has channelled over RM600,000 to help 1,661 people’s religious schools (SAR) across the country so far this year.
Minister Maszlee Malik said the amount was part of the additional allocation of RM25 million received by the ministry for the maintenance of SAR, private religious schools and state religious schools (SAN) registered under the MoE and the local religious authorities.
“Overall, the allocation had been distributed to 67 MoE-registered private religious schools and 213 others registered under the local religious authorities,” he said in the written reply to Awang Hashim (PAS-Pendang) posted on the Parliament website today.
In another written reply to Datuk Halimah Mohamed Sadique (BN-Kota Tinggi), the MoE said it is in the midst of formulating the Action Plan for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Education encompassing all levels from pre-school to tertiary education in a bid to produce STEM-literate workforce for the country.
The action plan, which is expected to be implemented next year, is capable of helping students to think analytically, creatively and innovatively to meet the needs in the era of the fourth Industrial Revolution (IR 4.0) era.
Meanwhile, Deputy Minister of Primary Industry Datuk Seri Shamsul Iskandar Mohd Akin said the strong diplomatic ties between Malaysia and China had brought about positive impact to the export value of palm oil and palm-based products.
He said the increase in the export value was due to the suspension of Malaysia’s crude palm oil export duties which made the prices more attractive to importers from China.
“For the period of January-August this year, the export of palm oil and palm-based products to China has increased by 473,348 tonnes or 25.4 per cent to 2.33 million tonnes compared to 1.86 million tonnes in the same period last year,” he said.
Shamsul Iskandar also expressed his ministry’s willingness to explore new markets related to the export of palm oil and palm-based products, while expanding the existing markets with Malaysia’s trading partners. — Bernama
