By Yen Feng

JURONG Junior College (JJC) vice-principal Chua Lek Hong needs more cash.

In just three months, he has used up the $10,000 grant the Ministry of Education (MOE) gave his school, as well as other schools, in February.

The grant was used to support the college's 74 needy students, and it also paid for basic expenses such as food and examination fees.

Other schools said they put the money towards replenishing programme funds, used to aid a surge in the number of new students whose families were affected by the recession.

'With more money, the college will be able to help more students,' said Mr Chua, echoing the majority sentiment of nine other primary and secondary schools that The Straits Times spoke to.

Last month, MOE responded to this call by pumping $67.5 million into its financial assistance package, just three months after it more than doubled last year's aid budget from $20.7 million to $44.4 million in February.

The $10,000 grant was for schools to channel cash where they saw fit: To students who needed more comprehensive support - to pay for physical education attire, for example; to those who did not qualify for the ministry's Financial Assistance Scheme (FAS) because they are non-citizens; or to those whose families' monthly earnings are marginally above the scheme's income ceiling of $1,800.

Schools with 10 per cent or more of its student population under the FAS received twice the amount - $20,000 - but for those with a significantly higher proportion of needy students to care for, the amount still fell short.

At Teck Whye Secondary in Choa Chu Kang, principal Adrian Cordeiro could not say how much of the grant remained but said the school has spent $5,000 a month this year paying for students' food, transport and stationery. A fifth of his students are from low-income families.

This year, more students have defaulted on their school fees too, he said.

'The grant was a windfall for us, yes, but this year the need is greater.'

In Woodlands, Riverside Secondary School's resident counsellor Rajamogan A. said the $20,000 grant had not yet been spent entirely, but that its coffers were 'running low' after two months.

The school's number of needy students doubled from 90 last year to 180 this year.

Part of the grant will be used to top up its exam-subsidy budget, which was cut earlier this year to pay for additional meal coupons.

Other schools like Endeavour Primary in Sembawang and Yishun Town Secondary, with fewer disadvantaged students, said they are watching for signs of financial distress, such as when children avoid the canteen during recess. But at present, they have not had to tap into the ministry grant.

The grant, totalling $5.4 million, was handed out by the MOE to schools to spend freely on needy students caught in the nation's worst recession in decades.

The ministry said it had set aside $44.4 million to help learners at all levels, from primary school to university, and the sum includes bigger bursaries and free uniforms, on top of free textbooks and school fees.

The ministry's most recent super-sized aid budget for the year - unprecedented at nearly $112 million - will put $45.6 million directly into students' Edusave accounts, which pay for enrichment classes like financial literacy, dance and drama workshops.

Grants and academic awards under its Edusave Scheme will receive a $20.3 million top-up. And schools that have spent 50 per cent or more of their $10,000 or $20,000 February grant will get another $5,000 next year. School officials last month generally welcomed this.

Most, like JJC's Mr Chua, said the school would look into ways to reach out to more students.

In the first five months of the year, the number of disadvantaged students under the ministry's FAS hit a record 45,700, compared with 44,900 for the whole of last year, and has more than trebled in the last five years.

This article was first published in The Straits Times.