MIRI: Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS) wants more transparency on education loans and scholarships offered by Yayasan Sarawak.
It vice president Sawing Kedit in a statement today said this is because in recent years, many Dayak students and parents had complained that their children did not get such assistance even when they had met the criteria.
At the same time, Sawing lauded Marudi Assemblyman Datu Dr Penguang Manggil’s call to especially Dayaks who have been offered to continue their studies at higher learning institutions to apply for assistance from the Foundation.
“The call is good indeed but PBDS would like to ask here, would such applications be approved,”he questioned, claiming that some are still being marginalised from such assistance.
“This is despite the students producing excellent results with flying colours,” said Sawing.
Therefore, he urged Dr Penguang to meet with the top management of Yayasan Sarawak to obtain detailed information on the conditions and criteria to enable an applicant to be successful.
“In addition, I would also like to ask Dr Penguang to ask the Sarawak Foundation to release data and details of aid recipients from the Foundation for the past 50 years,” he pointed out.
In a related development he said in Marudi, represented by Dr Penguang, the Dayaks formed the majority.
“I urge Dr Penguang to study and obtain data on how many Dayak children have received offers to further their studies at higher learning institutions and how many Dayak students have been given assistance by the Sarawak Foundation,” he said.
He said the data would allow the assemblyman to come up with short-term and long-term strategic plans for education development in the Marudi area.
