MOE Expands Edusave To Cover All Miscellaneous Fees From 2024
To make education more affordable for Singaporean students, the Ministry of Education (MOE) will make enhancements and changes to existing schemes and fee structures.
These changes will take place from 1 Jan 2024 and will benefit about 350,000 students in government and government-aided schools.
Source: Chan Chun Sing on Facebook
Notably, Singaporean primary school students can cover all their school fees with Edusave when the enhancements take effect.
Students can use Edusave to pay all miscellaneous fees from 2024
In a press release issued on Wednesday (5 July), MOE announced a series of changes to the Edusave Scheme, MOE Financial Assistance Scheme (FAS), as well as the miscellaneous fees structure for government and government-aided schools (GGAS).
Currently, students pay the following fees every month:
- School fees
- Standard miscellaneous fees (set by MOE)
- Second-tier miscellaneous fees (set by individual schools and cannot be more than standard miscellaneous fees)
Students in autonomous schools will also have to pay an additional fee on top of the abovementioned expenses.
Here are the school fees that students have to pay every month:
- Primary school: no school fees
- Secondary school: S$5
- Pre-university: S$6
From 1 Jan 2024, MOE will extend Edusave and FAS to cover all miscellaneous fees.
Source: MOE
Currently, the Edusave Scheme only covers second-tier miscellaneous fees. From 2024, however, MOE will allow students to use Edusave to cover all miscellaneous fees.
Those under FAS will also have their school fees and standard miscellaneous fee covered by the scheme.
No need to pay any out-of-pocket expenses
In the case of primary school students, they will not need to pay any out-of-pocket expenses when the changes take effect in 2024. This is due to two facts:
- There are no school fees for primary school students
- All miscellaneous fees covered by Edusave and FAS
As for secondary school fees, parents will still have to pay the monthly school fees of S$5 even though the miscellaneous fees can be covered by Edusave.
MOE estimates that the expansion of the FAS will cost about S$3.8 million per year and benefit about 40,000 FAS students.
On the other hand, the expanded Edusave coverage is expected to benefit about 310,000 non-FAS students.
Standard & second-tier miscellaneous fees to be standardised
MOE also announced in the press release that standard and second-tier miscellaneous fees — currently charged separately and different figures — would be merged into a single tier.
Simply put, the single-tier miscellaneous fee comprises the total of the current standard and second-tier miscellaneous fee, as illustrated in the table below.
The fee, however, will depend on whether they are in primary school, secondary school, or pre-university.
No action is needed for parents using their children’s Edusave to pay their second-tier miscellaneous fees. The “merged” miscellaneous fees will be automatically deducted from Edusave from 1 Jan 2024.
On the other hand, parents currently paying for their children’s second-tier miscellaneous fees through alternative means who want to switch to Edusave moving forward will have to submit the online Standing Order form available on MOE’s website.
Alternatively, they may submit the Standing Order form via the ‘Services’ Tab on Parents Gateway.
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Featured image adapted from Yu Neng Primary School on Facebook.Â
