KUALA LUMPUR: The discounts given to National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) loan borrowers will reduce the financial burden of parents and spur more students to continue their tertiary education after SPM.
National Association of Private Educational Institutions (Napei) secretary-general Dr Teh Choon Jin said the move would pave the way for underprivileged students to have access to higher education.
Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz, during the tabling of Budget 2023, said discounts would be given to all borrowers, if they made payment from Nov 1 this year to April 30, 2023.
Borrowers would receive a 20% discount if they made a full settlement on their loans, 15% if at least half of the outstanding balance in a single payment was made, and 15% if repayments were made through salary deduction.
“It is prudent to rebuild the PTPTN coffers to ensure long-term sustainability of the higher education sector,” Teh said.
Describing the Budget as a continuation of the government’s commitment to continue providing allocation for the PTPTN, he said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s recent announcement that there would be an increase from 75% to 100% in education loans for students from M40 families, as well as loans for the purchase of laptops to PTPTN borrowers in this income group, would help to fund students in the private higher education institutions.
On Tengku Zafrul’s announcement that RM6.7bil had been allocated for various technical and vocational education and training (TVET) initiatives compared to the RM6.6bil in the previous year, Teh said the allocation of RM180mil to fund TVET training, benefiting 12,000 trainers, would benefit Napei institution members as they could provide such training.
But Bumiputra Private Skills Training Institution action committee chairman Nordin Abdul Malek described the TVET allocation as “lacking the wow factor”.
“From the perspective of private training providers, we feel it would not help us to expand the TVET programme,” he said.
On the overall allocation of RM15.1bil, up from RM14.5bil for the higher education sector, Malaysian Association of Private Colleges and Universities president Datuk Dr Parmjit Singh hoped that part of the increase would be used to support initiatives towards achieving the Higher Education Ministry’s (MOHE) aspiration of having 250,000 international students in Malaysia by 2025, as well as to support initiatives within the private higher education sector.
Parmjit also said the RM3.8bil allocated for scholarships and education loans was timely.
“This will enable a larger segment of the lower and middle income groups, who are particularly affected by the fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic, to access higher education,” he said.
Tengku Zafrul also announced the allocation of RM6.6bil for education facilities for bumiputra children in Mara, Yayasan Peneraju and UiTM, RM20mil for the National Dual Training System, RM10mil allocated for green campus initiative in public universities and RM100 increase in living allowance for JPA (Public Service Department) scholars and officers in the country.
