Yayasan Sarawak exploring aid for nontraditional courses

Yayasan Sarawak is looking into the possibility of providing financial assistance for nontraditional courses to align itself with the state’s focus on digital economy.

Its director Azmi Bujang said the foundation will hold discussions with the state government in view of the new policies on digital economy and e- commerce.

“We want to align ( ourselves with the policies) so that within the next four to five years, we can produce enough graduates mainly in research because Chief Minister ( Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg) is talking about research in all these areas.

“Not only in the digital economy – we are going into arts, culture, performing arts – we are trying to diversify. Not that we have not done that before, but now we are trying to promote these things. So these are the new areas (we plan to look into); all the traditional courses we still give (educational assistance), no problem,” he told reporters yesterday.

Azmi was met after the School Uniform Assistance Programme 2017 handing- over ceremony at SK Agama here.

Touching on education loans, he said the foundation has been giving loans to students who successfully obtain a place in university and whose applications for National Higher Education Fund Corporation ( PTPTN) loans were rejected.

“We are the ‘ lender of the last resort’. Any student who fails to get any assistance going to university, they can come to us. So there is no problem with that. But of course, we are limited by allocation,” he said.

For education loans, he said the foundation is not particular on courses taken by the applicants, but prefer those offered by local universities.

He, however, said they have a list of courses for students intending to apply for scholarship assistance. The loans are provided interest-free and there is no GST.

Citing an example, he said if a person borrows RM20,000, he or she would have to pay back the same amount even if it takes 10 to 15 years to settle the amount.

Azmi said the good news was that those who performed well in their studies would be entitled for a 75 per cent discount, while for those doing slightly well, a 50 per cent discount. Those who obtained a pass would have to settle the full sum.

As for scholarships, the student would need to do well in the first semester, obtaining a CGPA of 3.5 and above, to obtain the scholarship.

Towards this end, he urged those who have taken loans from Yayasan Sarawak to repay back the sum as this amount will go back into the revolving fund to be redistributed to those needing loans.

“The payback amount is small because if you got First Class Honours, you only need to pay 25 per cent (of the loan).”

Azmi advised those making payment to WhatsApp their pay-in slip to 017- 8001971 after banking in the money so that they can identify the person making the payment.