State Education, Innovation and Talent Development Minister Datuk Seri Roland Sagah (seated centre) speaking to reporters at the Sarawak Legislative Assembly media room on Monday (May 26).
KUCHING: Sarawak's free tertiary education scheme (FTES) is estimated to cost RM300mil in its first year of implementation, says Datuk Seri Roland Sagah.
The state Education, Innovation and Talent Development Minister estimated that about 10,000 students were eligible for the scheme when it starts next year.
"In the following year, the amount will be more as the number of students increases," he told a press conference after delivering his winding-up speech at the Sarawak Legislative Assembly on Monday (May 26).
Sagah also said over 9,000 eligible Sarawakian students at institutions of higher learning in Malaysia had received free laptops under an initiative launched last year.
Additionally, he said some 3,000 students had received book vouchers worth RM500 to date.
The free laptop and book voucher assistance is meant for Sarawakian students from families with a per capita income of RM1,500 and below, who are studying full-time at public or private higher learning institutions across Malaysia.
In his speech earlier, Sagah said FTES was only for Sarawakian students at state-owned institutions comprising Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak, Curtin University of Malaysia, University of Technology Sarawak and i-CATS University College.
He said the scheme would first focus on undergraduate degrees in STEM-related fields, law, medicine, accounting, finance and psychology.
"However, there is other financial assistance in the form of scholarships or loans provided by Yayasan Sarawak to cater for any other courses, so nobody is left out," he said.
At this point, Chong Chieng Jen (DAP-Padungan) stood to seek clarification on why the scheme only covered certain courses instead of being extended to all courses.
In reply, Sagah said the scheme focused initially on the talents required by Sarawak in the next few years.
"We must spend wisely. It doesn't mean that we offer it for these courses and stop at that.
"We will look at it and this is the first step," he said.
