Reports by MARTIN CARVALHO and TARRENCE TAN

       THE free school breakfast programme introduced during Dr Maszlee Malik’s tenure as education minister in 2019 has been halted by the government.

       In a parliamentary written reply dated Nov 15, the Education Ministry said the Cabinet decided on Jan 15, 2020, not to continue the free breakfast programme as present government food programmes were adequate.

       “Present food plans for primary school pupils, such as the additional food programme (RMT), will be retained with improvements.

       “The Education Ministry will continue implementing the RMT and the school milk programme to deserving B40 pupils,” it said.

       The Education Ministry added that it was confident that the RMT would be able to positively impact pupils’ health and foster healthy eating habits among them.

       The ministry was responding to Maszlee (Ind-Simpang Renggam), who asked whether the free breakfast programme would be reintroduced by the government next year to help pupils whose parents were affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

       In September, Maszlee told the House that the programme should be reintroduced at primary schools under the 12th Malaysia Plan.

       He had said that according to studies in 2019, an estimated 2.7 million children, 50,000 teachers and 7,772 schools would benefit from the programme for 200 days a year.It was launched at 100 primary schools nationwide in January last year, but was later cancelled as schools were forced to close due to the pandemic.