Najib hands out RM80mil to religious schools nationwide

PUTRAJAYA: Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak on Tuesday handed an allocation of RM80mil to 819 registered pondok schools, Sekolah Menengah Agama Rakyat (SMAR), and tahfiz (religious) institutions.

The Prime Minister said the allocation under the Special Fund for Improvement and Maintenance of Schools as announced in Budget 2017 was aimed at empowering and strengthening the religious education institutions.

Of this amount, he said, RM30mil was allocated for coordinating and developing tahfiz education through the National Tahfiz Education Policy (DPTN), the first of its kind given by the Government for religious education.

"If it is the desire of parents (to send their children to tahfiz schools), then it becomes the Government's duty to determine that it not only remains as an option for parents, but an option that can produce successful human beings.

"Therefore, I have decided to approve the provisions to encourage the DPTN which has been enacted to produce guidelines so that the development of religious education can be more structured and systematic," he said during the ceremony held at Seri Perdana here.

Also present were Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom and Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (Jakim) director-general Tan Sri Othman Mustapha.  – Bernama