SUPPLEMENTARY FEES OF SCHOOLS

Mr Gerard Ee asked the Minister for Education whether schools should be asked to collect less supplementary fees during the current difficult economic conditions instead of increasing such levies.

RAdm Teo Chee Hean: Parents pay supplementary fees as a contribution towards the cost of materials used by pupils in the schools. In recent years, there had been much change to our curriculum which require more innovative materials and programmes. For schools which wish to expose pupils to the myriad of innovative materials available in the market, they have been making ad hoc cash collections from pupils. This makes it difficult for parents to budget for such expenditures, and places an extra administrative burden on teachers and schools.

To give schools the flexibility to reduce the ad hoc cash collections from the pupils, we decided to allow them to raise the supplementary fees. Children's Edusave Accounts can be used to pay for the increase in fees. There will therefore be no increase in cash outlay for the great majority of parents. Tables - SUMMARY OF YEAR-ON-YEAR COMPARISON: APR-JUN 97 AND 98 FOR NUMBER LEFS LOAN APPROVALS AND LOAN AMOUNT and LEFS APPLICATIONS APPROVED AND AMOUNT DISBURSED (JAN 96 - JUN 98) (Cols. 739-742) ANNEX 1 - PROGRAMMES/SCHEMES TO HELP RETAILERS (Cols. 743-744) Annex II - HEAVY VEHICLE PARKS (HVPS) (Cols. 745 - 746) ANNEX III - ASSISTANCE TO PEOPLE WITH FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES (Cols. 747-752)