KOTA KINABALU: More than 289,000 primary school pupils in Sabah will benefit from the School Social Assistance (Bantuan Sosial Sekolah) programme this year.
State Community Development and People’s Wellbeing Minister Datuk Shahelmey Yahya (pic) on Friday (Oct 14) said this involved 1,075 primary schools statewide.
The contributions under the programme ranged from school uniforms, school shoes, exercise books and stationery, which they hoped to finish distributing before the end of 2022.
“The high figure is a reflection of the state government’s concern towards aiding targeted groups of pupils in need.
“The recipients consist of pupils from the B40 or M40 groups.
“With this aid, hopefully the burden of expenses can be reduced for the parents, besides catering to the needs of daily learning for the pupils,” he said.
Shahelmey earlier in the morning handed the BSS to eight primary schools under Putatan district at SK Pekan Putatan.
He also asked for schools to update their pupils’ data for the purpose of channelling the assistance.
To date, 88 primary schools involving 16,500 pupils across Sabah had received school uniforms and shoes under the programme.
