Debated in Parliament on 6 Aug 2024.
Mr Leong Mun Wai asked the Minister for Social and Family Development and Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs for each year since 2020 (a) what is the amount of funds granted by the Government to Yayasan MENDAKI (MENDAKI) for the Tertiary Tuition Fee Subsidy (TTFS) scheme; (b) what percentage of the funds granted to MENDAKI are not disbursed; (c) what percentage of Malay students in tertiary institutions have benefited from the TTFS scheme; and (d) what is the median percentage of tuition fees waived for each student.
The Government is committed to ensuring that Malay students in financially challenged families have access to higher education. No Malay student will be denied a tertiary education because of financial difficulties.
The Tertiary Tuition Fee Subsidy (TTFS) scheme subsidises the tuition fees of eligible Malay students at local institutes of higher learning (IHLs), such as the polytechnics and universities, with students from lower-income households receiving higher subsidies.
From 2020 to 2023, the Government disbursed about $65 million annually to MENDAKI for the TTFS scheme with more than two out of three Malay students, or more than 9,000 Malay students in total, in local IHLs, receiving TTFS each year. Most of these students received the TTFS subsidy for the full amount of their tuition fees. Any undisbursed TTFS funds are channelled to MENDAKI’s Education Development Fund (EDF) to support educational assistance schemes and programmes to advance the academic progress of Malay students across different levels. In 2023, more than 90,000 beneficiaries benefited from MENDAKI’s various programmes.
Beyond TTFS, MENDAKI and the Ministry of Education, including the IHLs, also offer students other financial assistance schemes and study loan schemes to defray their education costs.
PAPERCUTS