KUCHING: Academicians support the suggestion by The Sarawak Initiatives (TSI) for the Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE) to cancel all the debts of students in the lower income group.
In making the suggestion recently, the society pointed out more could be done to help students from the lower income group who were struggling to repay their students loans while shouldering their families’ financial responsibilities during the current Covid-19 pandemic.
Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) Associate Professor Dr Neilson Ilan Mersat agreed that such initiative should be implemented.
“We are now at a critical moment where Covid-19 is like the sword of damocles hanging above all of us. This affects the incomes of people, especially those from the low income group.
“This government initiative will give the poor students breathing space to cope with the ongoing pandemic.
“The initiative will definitely resuscitate the interest of parents from the low income group to send their children for higher education,” he added.
Unimas Faculty of Language and Communication Deputy Dean Dr Zuraini Seruji also agreed the proposal made by TSI could help B40 students.
“However, if it were to be implemented, there needs to be a selection mechanism so that the help is focused on that specific group only,” she said.
Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities senior lecturer Dr Siti Zanariah Ahmad Ishak said that it was fair to help B40 students ease their financial burden.
“It is important to aid the unprivileged group and to close the poverty gap between the rich and poor. However, we should not forget that perhaps in the M40 group, there are students who, during Covid-19 pandemic, are also facing financial difficulties.
“If the proposal by the TSI were to be implemented, there should be a mechanism to tap these groups so the plan could be extended to them,” she added.
However, Dr Siti Zanariah does not support the initiative as a permanent policy.
“When the situation returns to normal, students need to be responsible for paying their loans as usual.
“We have to remember that PTPTN needs to be sustainable to provide a study fund to the next generation,” she said.
