Perak Menteri Besar Dato' Saarani Mohamad posing for a group photo with students.

IPOH, 29 December 2020 - A total of 1,200 B40 Perakian undergraduates were eligible to receive the RM150 one-off aid to ease the burden of those affected by COVID-19.

Perak Menteri Besar Dato' Saarani Mohamad said the state government through the Education and Higher Education Committee has allocated RM200,000 for that purpose.

"This allocation involves an aid of RM150 to be distributed to eligible undergraduates who fulfilled the set criteria," he said when presenting the Undergraduate Special Aid at Bangunan Perak Darul Ridzuan here today.

Also present were State Legal Adviser Azmir Shah Zainal Abidin, State Financial Officer Dato’ Zulazlan Abu Hassan, State Education, Higher Education and Human Resource Committee chairman Ahmad Saidi Mohamad Daud, State Plantation, Agriculture and Food Industry Committee chairman Razman Zakaria and Perak Children’s Aspiration Centre (PASAK) chairman Misbahul Munir Masduki.

He further explained that the aid involved a total of 551 undergraduates for the first phase, which payments were started on 18 December, while the remaining 649 undergraduates would receive payments starting January for the second phase via online transactions.

"Among the main criteria taken into account in providing aid are undergraduates with household income below the poverty line and undergraduates affected by the postponement of registration by the Ministry of Higher Education for admission in October," he said. The state government was very understanding of the difficulties faced by undergraduates and hoped that these efforts could reduce the undergraduates’ burden. 

“Hopefully, the efforts implemented can lessen the cost of living burden and cover additional needs, such as purchase of mobile data, webinar applications, reference materials for learning and other academic needs,” he added.

 Meanwhile, the Perak State Government’s caringness was welcomed by the undergraduates for helping those affected. Wong Kin Hou, 20, a Universiti Malaya student, said the state government's efforts were commendable and should be continued in helping underprivileged undergraduates. "The aid given has to some extent helped me in continuing my studies and such aid should be continued because we do not know when this pandemic will end. "I really appreciate the efforts shown by the Perak State Government and I hope that this pandemic can end quickly so that I can continue my studies as usual," he said.Another Universiti Teknologi Mara student, Nur Firas Inani Zainal, 20, said, such aid programme should be expanded throughout Perak because there were many others out there who needed such aid. “Aid like this needs to be expanded because many out there have overlooked the efforts of the Perak State Government in helping undergraduates like me. "The efforts implemented are very helpful in providing my study needs, such as mobile data which is very necessary for online learning as set by the university in continuing my education as an undergraduate,” she said.

Source : Corporate, SUK Perak.