[ad_1]
PETALING JAYA: MIC Vice President M Saravanan has assured the Indian community that Tamil vernacular schools have received funding in the 2021 budget.
Saravanan said the community had expressed dissatisfaction with the budget for not allocating funds to Tamil vernacular schools and that they did not want to support the government.
However, he said, discussions with finance and education ministers this morning confirmed that the focus had changed, with the allocation for Tamil schools added to the RM60 billion earmarked for the education ministry.
“Although last time, the sum for Tamil and Chinese schools was announced separately, this time it was all placed under the allocation of RM60 billion for educational development,” Saravanan, who is also the minister of human resources, told journalists in the lobby of Parliament.
The education ministry has been allocated approximately 15.6% of the total RM322.5 billion budget for 2021, the largest allocation of any ministry.
Tamil and Chinese vernacular schools received RM 50 million in last year’s budget.
Stating that vernacular schools were allocated funds during each budget, Saravanan said the education minister would reveal the exact allocation soon.
“I hope and believe that we (the Tamil and Chinese vernacular schools) will get a similar amount, which is 100 million ringgit, as we received during the previous administrations of BN and PH,” he said.
“We accept that times are bad and we need to reactivate the economy. Therefore, I let the Minister of Education decide (on the allocation). But the most important thing is that it has been parked at the Ministry of Education ”.
