‘Don’t let kids collect RM100 school aid’

Parent groups want the parents to collect the money direct from the schools or forfeit it.

PETALING JAYA: The annual government aid of RM100 for school-going children should be used to pay school fees, say parent groups.

This follows reports that students were “wasting” the money, including using it to modify their bicycles.

Parent Action Group for Education chairman Noor Azimah Abdul Rahim said adults should personally collect the money at school.

“The money is meant for the new school year.

“The children must not collect the money on their own because they may misuse the money.”

Azimah said if the parents did not come forward to collect the money, it should be forfeited.

She was responding to a Sin Chew Daily report yesterday claiming that children aged between eight and 16 used the RM100 school aid to modify their bicycles.

It quoted a bicycle shop assistant in Kuantan, identified only as Faizizul, as saying students spent between RM100 to RM300 each.

The RM100 financial aid for students was introduced by the government in 2010 to help ease the financial burden of parents.

Malacca Action Group for Parents in Education chairman Mak Chee Kin said schools should notify parents when the money had been collected.

“Some parents are not even aware their children have taken the money or have spent it.”

Mak also suggested that instead of handing over the RM100 at once, the school should first deduct school fees and the student’s miscellaneous school expenses from the sum.

“If the government intends to ease the parents’ financial burden in the new school year, it should implement this so students can benefit.” -FMT