Zahid: 80% of RM30m for tahfiz schools used for salaries

Deputy Prime Minister Zahid Hamidi says RM30m allocated in Budget 2017 used mostly to pay staff, so govt will strictly monitor the fresh allocation announced recently.

PUTRAJAYA: The RM30 million allocation for tahfiz schools announced recently by Prime Minister Najib Razak is totally for upgrading infrastructure and not to pay staff salaries, said Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

He said 80% of the RM30 million for the coordination of tahfiz education announced in Budget 2017 had been used to pay the salaries of the staff at the tahfiz schools.

“The government had given a similar allocation (in Budget 2017) but not many of the tahfiz schools used the funds for upgrading. 

“They used more than 80% of the funds to pay the salaries when the primary objective of the funding was to upgrade the infrastructure,” he said when opening the Conference on Human Capital Psychology 2017, here, yesterday.

Najib announced on Sept 15 an allocation of RM30 million to upgrade tahfiz schools following the fire at the Darul Quran Ittifaqiyah Tahfiz residential school in Keramat, Kuala Lumpur, which claimed the lives of 21 students and two teachers.

Zahid said that as the chairman of the High-Level Committee of the Tahfiz Schools Special Task Force, he would ensure that the allocation was fully used to upgrade the infrastructure and facilities at tahfiz schools. -FMT