BB1M not to fish for votes from students, says Fadilah
by Chen Ai Shih. Posted on February 8, 2012, Wednesday
USE WISELY: Fadillah (centre) hands over a mock BB1M voucher to one of the recipients as Sidma College CEO Prof Dr Morni Kambrie (left) looks on.
KUCHING: Deputy Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation Datuk Fadillah Yusof said the 1Malaysia Book Voucher (BB1M) for tertiary students has nothing to do with fishing for votes in the next parliamentary election.
“The government launches programmes to increase economic activities to sustain economic development in the country,” he said this at the BB1M voucher presentation ceremony at SIDMA College Sarawak here yesterday.
He explained that different programmes had been launched by the government to suit the needs of the country at different times.
The country’s export income is affected by economic crisis in the West and so programmes have to be carried out to move the economy, he added. He pointed out that the government was also implementing the programmes to help the people. These include the BR1M, 1Malaysia People’s Shop (KR1M) that sells items at a lower price and low cost houses that provide an alternative for budget buyers.
“These programmes could also help stabilise the price of goods,” he added.
The government had also sought to improve the facilities in East Malaysia as the rural area of Sabah and Sarawak are still lacking in basic infrastructure, he said.
Meanwhile Fadillah, who is PBB Youth chief and Petra Jaya MP said the country needed human capital to be transformed into a high income country. The government’s target to have 60 per cent Science students and 40 per cent of Arts students has not been achieved yet.
“We need more Science experts. scientific knowledge is needed to develop all fields including social development,” he said.
He added that higher income could be generated when the country is able to create and produce good products and sell them to others. For this to happen, science and technology are the necessary keys.
“I call upon everyone to think of the future of our country. Let us be more efficient, increase productivity and get involved in development programmes to transform our country to be a high income one,” said Fadillah.
He also encouraged students to take Early Childhood Education course as the need in society for childcare and nursing centres has increased.
“The future is good and the market is big. We need more childcare experts to help to develop children’s talent and impart knowledge to young children,” said Fadillah.
Book vouchers totalling RM260 million have been allocated to a total of 1.3 million students in the whole of Malaysia since January. They can use it to buy books from Jan 1 to Mar 31.
1,340 students from the college here received the RM200 book voucher each.
No comments:
Post a Comment