From sugar to school meals, the revenue from the sugar tax will be used to fund a programme for free healthy breakfasts for primary school students.
The revenue collected from the sugar tax will be channeled into the proposed programme from next year, said Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. He also expressed a wish for children to be strong and healthy so that they could perform well in school.
The sugar tax will be implemented on 1st July. A tax of 40 sen per litre will be imposed on drinks containing more than five grams of sugar or sugar-based sweetener per 100ml, as well as fruit and vegetable juices with sugar content of more than 12 grams per 100ml.
The sugar tax was supposed to be implemented on 1st April, but it was recently deferred to 1st July. This is to ensure that the mechanism is effective to primarily meet the health objectives, said Dr Mahathir, according to The Star.
Education Reforms
Other than that, bigger reforms in education can be expected after the special task force formed to review the national education policy from preschool to tertiary education completes their findings next month.
There are several key areas that the reforms will touch on such as improving English language competency, quality of teachers, and the employability of graduates.
In the last ten months, key steps have been taken towards addressing these aspects, including reforming the curriculum. The national civic and religious education curriculum are currently under review to ensure proper values are practiced and inculcated.
Thus far, exams for students in Standard One to Three have been abolished to make way for a more holistic development of each child. There are also intentions of increasing the number of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) graduates by making STEM subjects more accessible and meaningful.
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