Education Ministry to monitor schools' water and power use

KUALA LUMPUR: The Education Ministry will introduce a utilities dashboard to monitor water and electricity usage in schools.

Education Minister Datuk Dr Radzi Jidin (pic) said this is to ensure optimal use of resources.

“We saw that there were schools with thousands of ringgit worth of water bills during the movement control order,” he said during the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025 Transformation Forum here on Monday (Aug 8).

“I even know of an institution with a water bill totalling RM90,000 a month,” he added.

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According to Radzi, school utility bills are paid in bulk by the relevant district education office or state education department.

In a separate development, he said abolishing the Primary School Achievement Test (UPSR) and Form Three Assessment (PT3) exams had allowed teachers to focus on classroom and school-based assessments in keeping with the blueprint's objectives.

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The blueprint was launched in 2012 as an initiative for sustainable transformation of the country's education system.

Its targets include raising Malaysian students to international education standards; increasing public and parental expectations of the national education policy; and preparing Malaysian children for the challenges of the 21st century.