Needy students in post-secondary education institutions (PSEIs) stand to gain from more financial support. The Government is increasing this support to 50 per cent more than before.
Two existing bursaries, those awarded by the Community Development Councils/Citizens’ Consultative Committees and the Ministry of Education, will be enhanced from this year in 2017. Their income-eligibility caps will be raised so that more students can qualify for them.
Education Minister (Higher Education and Skills) Ong Ye Kung also announced that there will now be four bursary tiers across all PSEIs, up from the current three. This will allow the Government to be more targeted in helping students from lower to middle-income households. The bursary payouts will increase between S$50 to S$400 annually across the different levels, with lower-income students getting larger payouts.
The Education Ministry stands on the importance of funding life-long learning for Singaporeans and making it affordable and accessible to them.
Mr Ong also reported in Parliament on 7 March 2017, that the efforts to promote lifelong-learning and SkillsFuture over the years, has indeed paid off. The training participation rate has increased from 32 per cent to 42 per cent over the last decade, with about half the increase being realised between 2014 to 2017. Annual training headcounts have also increased by more than 70 per cent to 380,000 over the last five years.
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Source: The Business Times, 8 March 2017