A recent report by one of the dailies stated that taxpayers will have to dig deeper into their pockets because of the textbook assistance scheme, is false, misleading and lacks simple media ethics.
The Education Ministry would like to make it very clear that the textbook assistance scheme is sourced from within its budgetary allocation and at no time, had the Ministry requested more funds to cater for this assistance.
It is an exercise that involved re-focusing and re-prioritising assistance that are being provided to students and aligning them to the Ministry’s goals on 12 years of basic education for all students.
Put simply, the Ministry had looked at its goals and reset its priorities to be aligned with current initiatives, in particular, the achievement of 12 years of basic education for every child that enrols into Class 1.
While there are other factors that contribute to the attainment of quality education, the Ministry feels that providing resources for them is a critical one that would greatly contribute to quality education.
This is also an initiative to assist parents, who are really facing financial difficulties and that money saved from this exercise could be diverted to the purchase of school uniforms, stationery and food.
Finally, the Education Ministry is reminding reporters to be more professional in their approach towards issues that needs more “digging” and not resorting to sensationalised over-generalisations.