10,000 Sarawakian university students to receive free laptops this year, premier's chief political secretary says

KUCHING, Feb 11 2026: The Sarawak government is targeting 10,000 students from higher education institutions (IPTs) to receive free laptops this year as part of its efforts to advance the digital education agenda.

Caption: The five university students who received their free laptop voucher from Premier Abang Johari Openg - Photo by Ukas

Sarawak Premier’s Chief Political Secretary Fazzrudin Abdul Rahman said the initiative follows the success of the programme at the initial phase over the past two years — in 2024 and 2025 — which benefited 20,009 IPT students with an allocation amounting to RM61 million.

He explained that this year’s programme has already commenced, with approximately 5,700 students having been credited with vouchers for laptop purchases, involving a cost of RM17 million.

“This programme represents the second batch of implementation. For the first batch, distribution was carried out in 2025 involving more than 5,000 recipients, and today, over 5,000 additional laptops are being distributed to new recipients.

“Overall, for 2025 alone, including this latest distribution, the total allocation involved is approximately RM30 million, while last year the government distributed laptops with a total allocation of RM28.7 million,” he said.

He was speaking at a press conference after paying a courtesy call on Premier Abang Johari Openg, at the Kompleks Satria Pertiwi today.

During the visit, the premier also officiated the symbolic handover to five students, namely Nursyaridah Aleeyah Mohd Ali and Muhammad Halqim Masrah from Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas), Karen Bong Kai Hui from Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus, Jayviques Paran from i-CATS University College and Elister Edwards Erim from Polytechnic Kuching.

Meanwhile, Fazzrudin, who is also a Board Member of Yayasan Sarawak, added that besides providing free laptops, the Sarawak government has introduced other initiatives to assist Sarawakian students in pursuing their studies including free book vouchers, special financial assistance, free school transportation programme, and school uniform assistance.

Touching on the Sarawak Returning Graduate Initiative (i-GPS), he assured that the programme would continue this year.

“Each year, we allocate RM8 million for the implementation of this programme and, the allocation has been fully utilised by applicants annually.

“Based on projections, the programme is expected to benefit an estimated 10,000 to 11,000 students overall,” he added.