KUCHING: The state government will increase its allocation to the Unit for Other Religions (Unifor) by RM10mil to RM120mil this year, says Datuk Douglas Uggah Embas.
The Deputy Premier said the extra funds would go towards mission schools to help equip them for STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects.
“We will discuss with the schools about using the RM10mil for purchasing smart boards and similar facilities instead of building projects.
“Sarawak is starting free tertiary education at state-owned universities this year and we want students from mission schools to have the opportunity to study the relevant subjects,” he said when presenting Unifor funds to houses of worship yesterday.
The handover involved RM13.63mil for 71 projects and represented the final phase of disbursement for 2025.
Uggah also said the allocation for non-Muslim houses of worship would be maintained at RM90mil this year.
He urged the houses of worship to submit their funding applications by the end of February to expedite the process.
“We plan to issue the cheques by June,” he said.
Uggah also reminded the recipients to spend the funds as planned and to submit progress reports to Unifor. He said 285 out of 309 projects which received Unifor funding last year had not submitted their reports.
“Maybe some of them have just received the funds. But we are monitoring them,” he said, adding that Unifor would not consider new applications from houses of worship which failed to submit reports for previous projects.
