National Service costing more than PTPTN students debts?

While the Federal government has been strongly opposed to Pakatan Rakyat's pledge to abolish the debts owed by tertiary students to National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN), it is now revealed that a much bigger amount was being spent on the National Service (PLKN) programme every year.

In providing the figues, Defence minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said to train 629,052 trainees, the government had so far forked out RM4.36 billion, or an average of RM6,931 per trainee.

“The cost of training a PLKN trainee for 3 months for free is actually the same as the cost to finance a student who takes PTPTN loan for a degree programme for a year,” said Negeri Sembilan PAS commissioner Taufek Abdul Ghani.

Taufek said the RM4.36 billion could have been spent to finance education for some 622,857 students who took PTPTN loan in the first year..

The PLKN programme has come under heavy criticism following a spate of incidents involving misconduct and accidents. Some 17 fatalities involving trainees undergoing PLKN have been reported since it was introduced in 2004.

On March 12, a trainee at the Terlok National Service Camp in Perak succumbed to leptospirosis, or commonly known as the ‘rat fever”.

-Harakahdaily