Kedah Government to review Barakah Tuition Programme

ALOR SETAR, Aug 15 (Bernama) -- The Kedah State Government will review the effectiveness of the Kedah Barakah Tuition  programme implemented in April last year before deciding on whether or not to continue with it, the State Assembly was told today.

State Education and Human Resources Committee chairman Dr Salmee Said said the reason being that the programme involved only 2,000 primary and secondary students, when it should be reaching out to many more students.

(The programme is to help deserving students from low-income families reach their full potential in their studies especially those sitting for major government examinations, like the UPSR,  PT3 and SPM.)

“We will see how effective the programme is before making the decision on whether to continue or not because the achievements should not only be based on the students who participated in the programme, but also the countless others who were not part of the programme, but who sat for the same examinations.

"The state government takes a serious view of the issue, so we will look for the best mechanism to help all students  to ensure that they get excellent results,"  said Dr Salmee when replying to a supplementary question from Yeo Keng Chuan (PKR-Kulim).

Yeo wanted to know whether the state government under Pakatan Harapan (PH) would proceed with the tuition programme introduced by the previous state government .

The programme was one of the items on the agenda of former Kedah Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Ahmad Bashah Md Hanipah.

It was introduced in 15 parliamentary constituencies in the state and also aimed at enhancing educational excellence in Kedah.

Dr Salmee said the state government  provided an allocation only for tuition programmes conducted  with the Federation of Malay Students Union (GPMS) in Kedah.

-- BERNAMA