The Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Education, Ms Sim Ann, has disclosed in Parliament that at least 2000 scholarships are awarded to foreign students each year.
This includes about 950 pre-tertiary and 1070 undergraduate students from Asean and non-Asean countries. The scholarships cover both tuition and accommodation.
These scholarships cost $14,000 for pre-tertiary students and between $18,000 and $25,000 (i.e, average of $21,500) for undergraduates.
This works out to about $13.3 million for pre-tertiary students and $23 million for undergraduates, giving a total of at least $36 million.
It took Non-Constituency MP Yee Jenn Jong of the Workers’ Party from two sittings in the Parliament to extract these figures out from the Ministry of Education (MOE). Full story