KUALA LUMPUR – The government should revise the repayment scheme for National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) loan borrowers and introduce a more reasonable scheme under Budget 2025, a youth development and policy reform non-profit group said.
Ooi Tze Howe of the Higher Education Malaysia Association (Heya) said the repayment scheme should be accompanied by a contractual obligation that must be enforced to ensure the fund’s sustainability.
“Additionally, automatic deduction should be initiated to repay the loan starting from the borrower’s first full-time job.
“The repayment amount should be from 5% to 10% of the total net income of the borrower, in order to control the impact at a reasonable level,” he told Scoop.
Ooi also suggested PTPTN revise loans offered, whereby amounts lent to borrowers take into account their living costs and geographical location of their higher learning institutions.
“(The government) should provide a waiver scheme for top 5% to 10% of outstanding students – no longer just based on results – in order to control the total financial impact due to the waivers,” he added.
Incentives to address underemployment
Meanwhile, Ooi suggested that the annual budget introduce an incentive scheme to motivate fresh graduates to undergo re-skilling to address underemployment among youth.
Under this scheme, fresh graduates would be re-skilled through training agencies and industry attachments, while universities’ career centres would be revamped to provide job hunt-related training and services.
Cash assistance can be given to these youths should they fulfill all conditions stipulated under this scheme, he added.
Matching funds for TVET, skills development
Meanwhile, Mohd Izzat Afifi Abdul Hamid, the president of the Malaysian Youth Council, said Budget 2025 should allocate funds for more classes for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges to address the nation’s talent needs.
He noted that there are only 20,822 seats available in TVET colleges despite 68,671 applications received.
Izzat also called for a budget increase for the Skills Development Fund to match the allocation announced by the government for TVET development, as he pointed out that RM180 million had been allocated for this purpose in both the 2023 and this year’s budgets.
Izzat also called for an increment in the allocations for the Rakan Muda programme, as the RM20 million allocated in the previous budget is inadequate to mobilise around 9.6 million youths aged 15 to 30 years old. – October 17, 2024