More support for students facing financial difficulties: Indranee Rajah
SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Education (MOE) will be enhancing its financial support schemes for two groups of Singaporean students: those on the ministry’s Financial Assistance Scheme (FAS) as well as full-time Nitec and Higher Nitec students at the Institute of Technical Education (ITE).
This was announced by Second Minister for Education Indranee Rajah in Parliament on Wednesday (4 March) during her ministry’s Committee of Supply debate.
For students under the FAS at the primary, secondary and pre-university levels, MOE will be raising the public transport subsidy from $10 to $15 a month from April.
“For primary school students who take the school bus, we will also enhance the school bus transport subsidy to 60 per cent of monthly payable fees, up from 50 per cent today. This means that for parents paying a school bus fare of $110, out-of-pocket fees will drop to $45, down from $55 today,” said Indranee.
School meal subsidies for secondary school students will be raised to $2.90 per meal from April, up from $2.50 today. The subsidy for primary schoolers will remain at $2 per meal.
Pre-university students under the FAS will see their bursaries raised to $1,000 per year, up from the current $900. Students in the lowest income tier of the MOE Independent School Bursary will also benefit from the FAS enhancements, with the relevant aspects also applicable to Special Education (SPED) schools.
“Similar to last year, we expect around 52,000 students from the primary to pre-university levels to benefit from the enhancements. This will cost around $52 million each year, a 20 per cent increase from today,” said Indranee.
Support for ITE students
Noting that MOE subsidises over 90 per cent of the total cost of Nitec and Higher Nitec courses, she said the additional cash bursary provided to lower- and middle-income students will be enhanced by between $50 and $200.
From April, students from low-income families will also benefit from a full fee subsidy on top of an enhanced cash bursary of $1,500. This will apply to Nitec and Higher Nitec students students from families with gross household incomes of $2,750 and below or per capita incomes of $690 and below.
“We expect around 19,000 students to benefit from the enhanced ITE bursaries,” said Indranee.
Recipients of the Community Development Council/Citizens’ Consultative Committee-ITE Scholarship, which is offered to the top 10 per cent of GCE N and O-level entrants to the two courses, will also have their fees fully covered. This is on top of the cash award of $1,600 a year that is currently provided.
“Around 1,400 Nitec students and 1,200 Higher Nitec students will benefit from this. We will also rename the scholarship the ‘ITE Community Scholarship’ to better reflect its purpose,” said Indranee.
“With these enhancements, we will spend around $28 million a year on bursaries and scholarship for full-time Nitec and Higher Nitec students, an increase of around 20 per cent from today,” she added.
This comes on top of the $44 million more per year that MOE will spend on enhanced bursaries for polytechnics and universities for this year, which will benefit around 55,000 full-time diploma students and undergraduates, said Indranee.
She also assured members of the House that MOE takes pains to ensure that students can easily access its financial support schemes.
“In MOE schools, teachers and staff keep a look-out for students who may require financial assistance. When approaching students, they take care to do so sensitively and discreetly,” said Indranee, adding that ministry also works with community self-help groups to support students who need help beyond MOE.
“The process is even simpler for families on ComCare assistance. Students in our schools, Polytechnics and ITE whose families are on ComCare assistance will be automatically granted MOE financial assistance, without the need for any more documentation,” she said.
