Photo: Bernama
KUALA LUMPUR: Almost two million students nationwide, from primary to tertiary education, have redeemed their book vouchers, said Deputy Education Minister Wong Kah Woh.
"As of October 2020, approximately 1,915,100 students nationwide have redeemed their vouchers," he said in response to Lee Chuan How (PH-Ipoh Timur) in Dewan Rakyat on Tuesday (Oct 22).
Wong said the total redeemed value is RM157mil while RM120.5mil were used to purchase 3.9 million books.
He said the ministry has allocated RM290mil for 3,558,024 students and post-secondary students.
The allocation for each primary pupil is RM50 and RM100 each for secondary and tertiary students.
About 52.2% of the allocated book vouchers are redeemed nationwide, said Wong, and in the next two months, the ministry will work hard to ensure the remaining balance is utilised.
The ministry, he said, is engaging with state education departments, district education offices and library teachers (Guru Perpustakaan) to increase the redemption rate for book vouchers.
Wong noted that the book vouchers are only disseminated digitally through its mobile application Delima (Digital Educational Learning Initiative Malaysia).
"The book vouchers are provided as e-vouchers, and it is redeemed online," he said, adding that the book is posted by the registered vendors upon purchase.
He said as of Oct 21, there are 975 vendors registered with the ministry, with a total of 647,194 books titles available for students.
"We hope with these efforts, the issue of cash-out abuse will no longer occur in the book voucher programme," he said.
He added that all students are eligible to redeem the book vouchers, as long as they are in Year 4 and above for primary education, or secondary student, or in vocational college, pre-university course, matriculation college and Institutes of Teacher Education.
The Madani Book Voucher programme was announced on May 30, and vouchers are available to be redeemed till the end of the year.
