In a joint statement, PH’s education committee and several opposition parties said reports and studies have shown that stunted growth is a serious problem among children in Malaysia.

“Before the Covid-19 pandemic, nearly 70% of students did not eat breakfast during school days due to multiple factors. The situation has worsened since the pandemic especially when schools have started to reopen,” they said.

The parties said the meal programme would benefit three groups – students, parents and school canteen operators.

“PSP will be an intervention programme to ensure all students get a nutritious breakfast throughout the year regardless of their socio-economic background.

“It will benefit more than 2.4 million poor families across the country, including some from the M40 group who have fallen into the B40 category as a result of this pandemic.

“Meanwhile, 70,000 canteen operators will get relief because most of them only depend on the sale of food to schoolchildren as their main source of income,” they said.

The free breakfast programme had been cancelled because of the closure of schools during the Covid-19 pandemic.