Any student from a family whose income is $7,200 or less will be eligible for a bursary, an increase that is almost double the current income cap of $3,750.

The change will see such aid flowing out to as many as 80 per cent of households here. At present, only the bottom 50 per cent receive it. In all, about 880 independent school students have successfully applied for such aid.

The boost in aid was announced yesterday by Education Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam at a dialogue with about 200 Ulu Pandan residents.

The session came after a three-hour ministerial walkabout, during which he was accompanied by MPs of the Holland-Bukit Timah GRC, including Minister in the Prime Minister's Office Lim Swee Say and Ulu Pandan's MP Christopher de Souza.

Mr Tharman also said his ministry will pump in $150 million over the next five years to encourage more schools to specialise in niche areas like sports, dance or robotics.

These moves, he indicated, underline the merit-based nature of the Singapore education system.

He said: 'Regardless of where you start, what your father and mother are doing, how much they earn...we have to make sure that our system is such that every child based on his or her ability, strength and talent can go to any school based on merit.'

At the dialogue, a resident asked what was being done to raise standards in neighbourhood schools and how accessible were independent schools to poor students.

Monthly school fees at independent schools are between $200 and $300 while the fees at neighbourhood are usually under $20.

With the new ceiling, independent school students whose family income is in the $4,501 to $7,200 range will have one-third of their fees subsidised. When the family income is between $3,751 and $4,500, the subsidy will cover half of the school fees.

Those in the bottom 50 per cent of households will get more: 75 per cent when the income falls between $2,501 and $3,750 (previously 50 per cent); and 90 per cent (previously 75 per cent) for the $1,501 to $2,500 range.

As before, full subsidy is given to students whose family earn $1,500 or less.

The Education Ministry also announced yesterday that from next year, the top one-third of students who enter independent schools will each get a standardised $2,400 a year from the Edusave Entrance Scholarships for Independent Schools.

It will not affect those already receiving the scholarship, which ranges between $1,644 and $4,596.

The ministry said that coupled with the new subsidy rules, no student from the bottom 80 per cent of households will have to pay more as a result of the Edusave change.

On the niche funding, Mr Tharman said: 'The increment is largely for neighbourhood schools...It will be a significant plus for them and we want to encourage them all to be above average in something.'

There are 112 schools - including 57 neighbourhood schools - that have received extra funding for niche programmes. The goal is to have 180 schools by 2012.

Speaking to reporters later, Mr Tharman said his ministry would look into suggestions made on Saturday by former deputy prime minister Tony Tan, now adviser to a committee on the expansion of the tertiary sector, on raising varsity places to 30 per cent of each cohort.

He said: 'My sense is that whatever we do, we will do it well. Make sure that standards don't slip and make sure that in expanding the sector we are not just going for expansion of numbers but going for differentiation.'

mariaa@sph.com.sg

MERIT-BASED SYSTEM

'Regardless of where you start, what your father and mother are doing, how much they earn...we have to make sure that our system is such that every child based on his or her ability, strength and talent can go to any school based on merit.'
EDUCATION MINISTER THARMAN SHANMUGARATNAM