KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 15 — The Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE) has set its sights on reinstating normality into the lives of students and faculty members as the main thrust of its 100-day report card performance.

MoHE, in its statement, said that it is focusing on four main initiatives for its 100-day key performance index (KPI) indicators, starting from September 1, 2021.  

These include providing 443,760 food vouchers worth RM15 as part of the FOOD@CAMPUS Keluarga Malaysia Programme to B40 students and supplying some 1.16 million Covid-19 rapid test kits (RTK) to students under the RTK@Campus initiative. 

The two remaining initiates involve fully vaccinating some 1.27 million students, faculty members, and non-academic staff at all institutions of higher education under the VACC2CAMPUS Programme, and finally, the GETHIRED@KPT Programme that aims to place 13,000 graduates with full-time jobs by the end of this year. 

These programmes were initiated to complement the six main thrusts of the Keluarga Malaysia theme, which include restructuring the economy, ensuring national safety and sovereignty, raising social prosperity, introducing holistic infrastructural upgrades, strengthening unity, and empowering deliveries of services. 

"In relation to this, MoHE is using the strategy of galvanising the spirit of #KPTPrihatin (#KPTCares) of which the approach is significant to the three main principles of Keluarga Malaysia, namely being sensitive to current needs, being responsible and trustworthy, and to restore the people’s confidence. 

"With these material assistance programmes such as distribution of food vouchers, receiving vaccines, providing RTK kits as a preventive measure to curb the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the preparation of job opportunities to generate income, MoHE hopes the target groups will feel safer and well taken care of especially from the aspect of welfare and safety,” the ministry stated. 

What are these four programmes? 

Elaborating on the FOOD@CAMPUS Keluarga Malaysia Programme, the ministry said the RM15 vouchers are aimed at providing some relief for students from families adversely affected by the Covid-19 economic downturn. 

"This programme which kicked off on October 18, 2021, involves an allocation of around RM6.6 million. We expect around 88,752 targeted B40 students, identified by their own public universities, to benefit from this initiative.” 

The ministry explained the food vouchers would be distributed digitally to five public universities, namely in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM), Universiti Pertahanan Malaysia (UPNM), Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UniMAS), and Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP).

"These digital vouchers are redeemable by scanning a provided QR code.” 

As for the 15 other institutions of higher education, targeted students will receive cash vouchers with the money deposited directly into their bank accounts to be redeemed at their respective cafeterias. 

The ministry explained that among the challenges they faced with distributing the food vouchers is ensuring recipients are those who genuinely require the assistance. 

"In this context, all public universities have to ensure students’ data is updated transparently, quickly, and accurately.” 

The VACC2CAMPUS Programme, meanwhile, is aimed at achieving a 100 per cent vaccination status among students and staff, involving a total of 1,276,267 individuals.

The objective of the RTK@Campus test kit distribution programme is to ensure the safety of those on campuses while curbing the spread of Covid-19. 

Distribution of these RTKs involve existing students, new students, and is also meant as an intervention to off-campus students who repeatedly (go in and out of the campuses) and also students who exhibit symptoms. 

The ministry’s fourth initiative, the GETHIRED@KPT Programme, aims to match graduates to jobs while ensuring their marketability. 

"This programme has four main initiatives to ensure its success, namely the Penjana KPT-CAP, the Graduate Marketability Intervention program, the Structured Internship Program (SIP), and entrepreneurship programmes.” 

What has been achieved so far

The ministry stated that as of November 11, a total of 382,259 (86 per cent) food vouchers have been distributed to the target groups under the FOOD@CAMPUS Keluarga Malaysia Programme. 

"In relation to this, MoHE has scheduled a total of 61,501 more (vouchers) to be distributed for the entire month of November.”. 

As for the vaccination efforts under the VACC2CAMPUS Programme, a total of 1.08 million individuals or 86 per cent of all students and staff have been fully vaccinated as of November 11. 

Breaking down the numbers, the ministry explained how 959,917, or 84 per cent, out of the 1.15 million students are fully immunised with two vaccine doses. 

The vaccination rate among academic and non-academic staff has reached 96 per cent with 126,552 people fully vaccinated. 

"We expect that by December 7, 2021, all 100 per cent of individuals in institutions of higher education will be fully vaccinated.” 

As for the RTK@Campus initiative, 1,169,728 test kits have been distributed to tertiary students, incurring total costs of around RM17.5 million. Target achieved 100 per cent.

MoHE’s fourth initiative GETHIRED@KPT, a total of 13,231 or (100 per cent) Malaysian students have obtained job placements and income generation. Target achieved 100 per cent.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob had said that these 100-day report cards and views from the public relayed through social media would be taken into account to gauge each minister’s performance. 

He had also said the 100-day report card is not meant as a form of punishment but merely to ensure the ministers are doing their jobs well.