LETTER | Budget 2021, which aims to aid society's needs throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, has been a hot topic. Let’s talk more on the allocation mentioned by the Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz for underprivileged children. 

It was mentioned that RM200 will be given to underprivileged children below six years old and RM150 for those from seven to 18 as a one-off payment. The minister had said this may aid their nutritional needs. But it may be better for funds to be directed towards providing a better home-based learning environment for the group since schools are closed. 

Education among the underprivileged needs to be taken care of as it is quite disturbing to think that most of these children cannot afford home-based learning. Even the cost of a book is quite expensive for these families. Therefore, it is quite difficult to imagine how these children can learn without adequate resources such as learning materials.

Nutrition is important and contributes to a child's academic performance. A study has shown that Year 5 students with less nutritious diets performed worse on a standardised literary assessment and many other studies have proven that lack of nutrition may affect the student’s academic performance.

But with online learning, underprivileged children may encounter difficulties in assessing classes for lack of gadgets, Internet connection and a conducive environment. The government should take the initiative to provide education to these children by creating a library for them, among others, as students who live in poverty are unable to afford the extra academic help from reference books and tuition classes, which further widens the gap between them and the privileged. 

These families usually look at education as a way for them to get out of poverty. Plenty of research worldwide has concluded that living in poverty limits educational opportunities, which means students from underprivileged communities often end up in a ruthless cycle where they remain just as poor as their parents and cannot improve their situation.

Therefore, aiding education at home for these children need to be made a priority during the movement control order. Perhaps the budget should cater to this more for these children to have a better future and reduce poverty.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.