| Opportunity Funds
4.20 In last year’s Budget, I topped up
the Edusave account of every primary and secondary
school student by $100, to fund education enrichment
activities. Our schools today offer a wide range
of enrichment activities, from educational tours
to music and sports. It is no wonder that the
education industry is thriving! This year, I have
put aside $50 million for education as part of
the Progress Package. But instead of making equal
top-ups into every student’s Edusave account,
MOE will create Opportunity Funds in every school.
The schools can use these Funds to provide more
curricular and enrichment opportunities for needy
students.
4.21 We will set up Opportunity Funds in all
the MOE schools, Junior Colleges/Centralised Institute,
ITEs and Special Education (SPED) schools. Neighbourhood
schools have many good programmes and offer a
quality of education that few other countries
can match. They can go further to expand the boundaries
of their students’ learning, and help all
students take advantage of the opportunities they
provide regardless of family income. It is how
we level up. We will give each school a grant
for this purpose, with neighbourhood schools getting
double the grant per capita compared to independent
and autonomous schools. A typical primary school
will receive a grant of $118,000 while a typical
neighbourhood secondary school will receive a
grant of $150,000.
4.22 MOE will not dictate what exactly the schools
should spend the Opportunity Funds on. But schools
should seek to provide students with opportunities
to learn beyond the classroom and to build firm
foundations for learning. For example, schools
can provide subsidies to help poor students purchase
personal computers to use for project work, or
they can subsidise study trips to regional countries,
to help broaden students’ horizons and make
learning come alive.
4.23 The self-help groups, namely CDAC, MENDAKI,
SINDA and the Eurasian Association, all play an
important part in reaching out to students from
lower- income households. I will therefore set
aside a total of $2 million for these self-help
groups to set up their own Opportunity Funds,
on the basis of matching donations from their
communities. They can then do more to help children
from low-income families.
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