Free school bus programme to be expanded across Sarawak

KUCHING (May 25): The Ministry of Transport and Yayasan Sarawak plan to expand the Free School Bus Programme to other divisions in Sarawak, says its minister Dato Sri Lee Kim Shin.

He said this is following the programme’s successful implementation in Kuching, Miri, Bintulu and Sibu.

“The programme has so far benefitted 5,047 students from 64 schools comprising 2,170 students from 27 schools in Kuching, 2,604 students from 29 schools in Miri, 68 students from two schools in Bintulu and 205 students from six schools in Sibu,” he said in his ministerial winding-up speech.

Lee said the programme was mooted by the Premier of Sarawak and launched on July 14, 2020 with the main objective to assist students from the B40 group to go to school every day and to lighten the financial burden of their families.

He said he was informed that many students from the B40 group skipped classes because they could not afford the daily school bus fare.

“My ministry, Yayasan Sarawak and SAINS are working together to improve the business model for this programme by looking into the possibility of paying the school bus operator directly using cashless payment via S PAY Global,” he said.

On another note, Lee said the ministry is planning various initiatives to be implemented under the Road Safety Council, including reviving Traffic Games in Sarawak, to inculcate among the children good road behaviour and understand of road and traffic signs.

For this purpose, he said the ministry would engage with Shell, Petronas, Petros, transport-related companies and non-governmental organisations to initiate and co-organise the event throughout Sarawak.

“In this respect, my ministry will coordinate with local authorities to improve their existing traffic gardens so that we can use the facilities to hold the traffic games.

“As for towns that do not have traffic garden to hold such games, I would like to suggest for the local authorities to identify suitable sites for such purpose,” he said.

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