[esenesesinas]

Wednesday October 27, 2010

Non-eligible pupils enjoying free meals for the poor

PUPILS from families who own double-storey houses, cars and mobile phones have been found to be getting free meals meant for the poor. Some of the parents could afford Astro subscriptions, yet their children were benefiting from the Government’s free meals programme for students.

An audit sample of 188 primary schoolchildren found that almost 60% of them were actually ineligible for the programme, which was meant for pupils from families that earned RM400 or less a month. The audit was carried out at 47 schools in 14 districts in Perak, Sabah, Sarawak and Terengganu.

It was conducted between June and October last year. Only 10 schools were found to have managed the programme well. According to the Auditor-General’s Report, the programme was allocated RM254.9mil last year, of which RM249.26mil was spent on 689,950 students in 138 districts nationwide.

However, many schools had failed to follow the guidelines, resulting in a misallocation of government resources. Eligible students were those who were malnourished (as confirmed by a medical officer), lived far from school without their own transport, or from small schools of fewer than 100 students whose parents earned not more than RM600 a month.

In its reply, the Education Ministry said it would use the e-Kasih database to pick eligible pupils next year. However, until the database was operational, the report recommended that the programme committee of each school study the eligibility of students based on the family’s income or assets as recorded in the schools’ Student Information System.