Malaysian Parents Are Paying The Price With Singapore School Fees Hike
It is not cheap to send your child to study in the best schools in the world. Parents whose children are schooling in Singapore are seeing yet another price increase in the Singapore school fees, beginning next year.
This comes as a double whammy for thousands of parents due to the weakening Ringgit. Ringgit is now 3.08 against the Singapore Dollar, as of October 2, 2015.
More than 10,000 children from Johor attend school in Singapore, but many of their parents are now considering local private or international schools, as the school fees and transportation cost have now come up to almost RM2,000 per child, per month.
According to an article published by The Star Online, V. Meena, 47, a housewife, would be paying an additional S$120 (RM360) for both her children who are studying across the Causeway.
She told online portal that her younger child’s new fees would be S$370 (RM1,110), S$20 (RM60) more while fees for her elder child would be S$550 (RM1,650), an increase of S$100 (RM300).
Meena said she would have to look at other options such as putting them in local private or international schools.
“Whatever I do, I need to think about them as surely they will miss their schoolmates whom they are close to,” she added.
Another parent, L.M. Looi, 46, a lawyer, was also looking at other options for his son who is in Primary 5 in Singapore.
“It is not just the increase in school fees next year, but the cost of transportation has also gone up to almost RM900 per month this year,” he said.
Gregory Lui, 47, said that his son would be going to secondary school and the S$100 increase to S$550 per month would be a burden.
“When my son started in Primary One, we were paying about S$125 per month. The fees seem to be always increasing,” he said.
Lui is also considering Malaysian private or international schools in the state.
Another parent known as Mrs Chang, 39, said she her 11-year-old child would have to continue his education there, despite the increase as it was too late to take him out.
“My 13-year-old son, who was initially there, opted to come back to Malaysia as he was unable to cope with the stress of studying there. He is now studying in an international school here,” she said, adding that she pays about RM1,300 per month for his school fees.
This fees adjustment is part of the Singapore’s Ministry of Education periodic review to further differentiate fees by citizenship.
Only the Permanent Residents (PRs) and international students (IS) in government and government-aided schools will be affected by the revised fees from January 2016.
Fees will increase by between S$20 (RM60)and S$60 (RM180) per month for PR students and by between S$20 and S$150 (RM450) per month for IS.
School fees for Singapore citizens remain unchanged – it is free at primary level, S$5 (RM15) for secondary level and S$6 (RM18) for pre-university level.
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