PORT DICKSON: The Pakatan Harapan (PH) candidate for the Port Dickson parliamentary by-election, Anwar Ibrahim, hopes the online free tuition programme mooted by him could be expanded to the whole country in future.
He said the programme was currently part of the initiative that he offered in his by-election campaign and it was targeted at Year 1 up to Form 5 students in schools in the Port Dickson district.
“It would be a major loss if this programme is not used in the best possible way by parents and teachers.
“But I cannot do anything because I am not the minister. I call on the parents to encourage their children to continue to study.
“If I were to get the mandate later as the MP for this area, I will ask the district education office to evaluate the effectiveness of the programme in November and study ways of improving it,” he said at the event to launch the programme here today.
Anwar said the online free tuition, which could be accessed through “pdtuition.com“, offered learning in all subjects taught at national schools and national-type schools.
Anwar, who is also PKR president-elect, however, said the effectiveness of the programme, which is also run in collaboration with private companies and individuals from NGOs, highly depended on the awareness of teachers and parents.
Anwar will contest in a seven-cornered fight in the by-election to be held on Oct 13.
The seat was vacated by incumbent Danyal Balagopal Abdullah on Sept 12 to enable Anwar, who recently won the post of PKR president uncontested, to stand for election and return to the Dewan Rakyat.
In the 14th general election on May 9, Danyal, 68, won the seat with a majority of 17,710 votes, defeating BN candidate VS Mogan and Mahfuz Roslan from PAS.
The Port Dickson parliamentary constituency has 75,770 registered voters, comprising 43% Malay voters, 33% Chinese, 22% Indians and 2% others.