Anwar: Najib cut education budget allocation by 20pct

Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has accused Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak of reducing the budget allocation for education by 20 percent, thus showing that the BN government is undermining the role of education.

Giving his keynote address on free education at Universiti Industri Selangor today, Anwar (right), who is also Permatang Pauh MP, said when he was the deputy prime minister and finance minister, the two highest allocations went to the education and health sectors as it is for the people's benefit.

“Ideally, a nation should allocate 20 percent of its Gross Domestic Product to education. However, in Malaysia, we see the BN government reducing its budget in education.

“In 2012, the Education Ministry was allocated RM50 billion for education purposes and in 2013, the BN government had reduced it to RM37 (actually it is RM38.7) billion. Never before has a government reduced its allocation towards education, and this is about a 20 percent reduction,” he said.

Anwar added that focus should be towards proper management and good governance, as the Pakatan government aspires to provide free education up to the university level.

He said that it is only through good and quality education, that one can build a good civilisation that a nation aspires to become.

Showing the examples of the Selangor and Penang governments which have managed to increase their reserves to RM2.5 billion and RM2 billion respectively, Anwar said that Malaysia as a whole has suffered a deficit in excess of RM500 billion, which is worrying.

[More to follow]