Provide more scholarships and interest-free study loans, govt urged

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KUCHING: The government is urged to provide more scholarships and interest-free study loans, as among the measures to help young Malaysians to pursue their higher education without having to worry about being burdened with debts.

In making this call, PKR women national vice president Voon Shiak Ni said considering education is a necessary investment for the young in every nation, any aid or assistance given by the government should not be burdensome to those who had taken the initiative and make efforts to pursue higher education.

“We need to be reminded that the young can easily choose not to further their studies or to be ambitious and instead, idle their time in the ‘loitering culture’, which is also a growing social problem now in our society.

“We urge the government to facilitate and to encourage the young to manifest their potential and to be ambitious by giving them the support and the necessary aid,” she said in a press statement today.

Voon was commenting on a news report calling on National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) to stop the high administrative charges, following an increasing number of Malaysian students who have been blacklisted for defaulting on their loan repayments.

“The student loan by PTPTN, which is supposed to be a financial aid to help our young people to pursue their further studies, is now viewed as another version of ‘loan shark’. It had also made them debtors when they are laden with a 20- to 25-year loan to service even before they started working,” she said.

According to Voon, these administrative charges, which are used to offset operational costs as well as part of the charges imposed by financial institutions on funds borrowed by PTPTN itself, are calculated beginning six months after the borrower has graduated and it is calculated on a monthly basis.

“One of the most common reasons given for defaulting in the loan is the administrative charges, which is equal to an interest being charged on the unpaid loan amount,” she said, adding that it is a frustration for young people to find their names on the travel ban list because they defaulted in the repayment of the PTPTN loan.