KUALA LUMPUR: PAS wants the National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPN) to abolish the four percent interest on student loan and replace it with a scholarship.
“We hope the government will abolish the interest rate on the PTPN loan and give comfort to the rakyat. The slogan ‘People First, Performance Now’ can only be meaningful if the government replaces the loan with scholarship,” said Federal Territory PAS information chief Mohamad Suhaimi Abdul Aziz.
He said it was sad to note that the fees compounded by rising cost of living and mounting interests is forcing students to skip meals and work to support themselves.
“Many students are forced to work part-time and there are instances of some who are unable to go back to their hometowns during semester breaks because they have to work to support their studies.”
Suhaimi was responding to Deputy Higher Education Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah who was recently reported as saying that some students in universities and colleges were literally skipping meals and tightening their belt due to make ends meet.
Suhaimi said he feared the four percent interest rate imposed by PTPTN only worsened the situation for desperate students, who may be duped into immoral activities as a means to an end.
He said PAS was also asking the government to review the fee structure of tertiary education in the country.
“Fees in public and private institutions of higher learning should be streamlined with the parents’ income level, especially those in the lower income group,” he said.
He said that currently the fees to pursue the Masters and PhD courses are extremely high.
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