MOE: Higher school fees for PRs & international students

SINGAPORE: The Ministry of Education (MOE) will be increasing the fees paid by Singapore permanent residents (PRs) and international students in government and government-aided schools over the next three years (2024-2026), the ministry announced on Wednesday (Oct 18).

The ministry said that the hike in fees for non-citizens is part of MOE’s regular review of school fees, adding that the planned increase for PRs and international students will allow their parents to prepare to finance the children’s studies in government and government-aided schools. The school fees for Singaporeans at MOE schools will remain unchanged.

Starting January next year, the monthly school fees for PR students will increase by $25 to $60. For international students, they will go up by $25 to $140. MOE also published a table of the revised fees for the primary, secondary, and pre-university levels for the next three years.

The fees remain the same for Singaporean students in government and government-aided schools. Citizens are not required to pay school fees at the primary level but pay a monthly fee of $5 at the secondary level and $6 for pre-university.

“As announced in July 2023, MOE will merge the standard and second-tier miscellaneous fees into a single tier from 2024. The same miscellaneous fee applies to students of all nationalities,” the ministry added.

At present, government and government-aided schools are charging both standard and second-tier miscellaneous fees. These are used to defray the cost of school materials and student programmes.

In July, MOE said, “To enhance the affordability of education for Singaporean primary to pre-university students, the Ministry of Education (MOE) will be enhancing the Edusave Scheme and MOE Financial Assistance Scheme (FAS), with effect from 1 January 2024. Adjustments will also be made to the miscellaneous fees structure in Government and Government-aided schools (GGAS).

To strengthen financial support for Singaporean students, both Edusave and MOE FAS will be extended to fully cover all miscellaneous fees from 2024. MOE is expected to spend an additional $3.8 million per annum to extend MOE FAS’ miscellaneous fee coverage, which will benefit around 40,000 MOE FAS students. Another 310,000 non-MOE FAS students will benefit from being able to use Edusave to cover all miscellaneous fees, allowing parents to reduce out-of-pocket expenses for their children’s educational needs, ranging from $78 (in primary school) to $162 (in Pre-University) per year for their child.” /TISG

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