The world of Tzu Chi January 2020 (Vol.118)

2020 • 01 08 eature the government, parents are still responsible for purchasing school supplies ranging from school uniforms to schoolbags and stationery, besides having to pay for transportation fares from their own pocket and provide their children with pocket money. When accumulated, these miscellaneous expenses amount to a prohibitive sum for impoverished families struggling to survive. Students from these families are inclined to quit school at an early age to take on work that supplements the family income. Desperate parents are also likely to remove their children from school to reduce overall household expenses. These circumstances lead to a vicious cycle of illiteracy and poverty as the children lack access to quality education, qualifying them for only low-skilled, menial labour with low wages. Transforming lives with education The Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) highlighted in an article that assuming a university graduate earns a starting salary of RM2,618, every B40 household with a university graduate has the potential to increase their total household income to RM5,466, enabling them to progress towards M40 income levels. Therefore, the importance of education in improving living conditions for underprivileged households, as well as enhancing quality of life, future prospects and social mobility, is clearly pronounced. As of January 2019, 2,727,068 students are enrolled in primary school and 2,007,692 in secondary school, according to statistics by the Ministry of Education of Malaysia (MOE). Notably, the Malaysian government has been taking steps to address the concerns of students across the nation in order to ensure equal access to education for all. In November 2019, the Sarawak state government announced a free school bus service for students in Kuching commencing April 2020, to alleviate the burden of transportation fares, especially for disadvantaged families living in remote regions. In keeping with the national education goals proposed in the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013–2025, the MOE has launched the Program Sifar Murid Cicir (PSMC or Zero Student Dropout Programme), a pilot project aimed at identifying school dropouts and