1,290 Sabah Schools receive assistance

Jan 15, 2015.
By Olivia Miwil
olivia@nst.com.my

PENAMPANG: Ricardo Ronnie, who came to school with an old bag with broken zipper on first day of school opening, determined to save the newly received RM100 school aid for rainy day.

  The primary three student of SK Putaton here, however, received a new bag and a pencil case on Tuesday after a good samaritan donated money to buy him a new bag and a pencil case.

  "As I have almost everything I need for school, it is better to keep the extra money for emergency.

  "My parents are gardeners and it is not easy for them to support six children," he said.
 Ricardo walks daily from his home to SK Putaton, which takes about 30 minutes.

 Meanwhile, another parent Elizabeth Dadu who received the school aid here at noon said she would buy her daughter a new schoolbag.

 "She has been asking a new bag before school opening but we put it on hold due to financial constraint.

 "Now there's school aid given by the governmnent, we hope that the bag could motivate him to get good result in her Ujian Penilaian Sekolah Rendah," she said.

  SK Putaton is among 1,071 primary schools and 219 secondary schools in Sabah getting theRM100 school aid.

  The assistance which benefitted 5.4 million students nationwide was announced in Budget 2015 by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Najib Razak to help parents and caregivers in preparing children’s return to schools.