While the exact financial value of the scholarship is hard to determine unless we are talking about a particular academic institution, we shall define a specific ballpark for you to understand more about the concept. For starters, local merit scholarships are usually provided to students belonging to moderate to low-income groups. However, as a parent, it is your responsibility to determine the sanctions' exact value before enrolling your child in a private or international school in Singapore.
How to determine the exact value of the scholarship?
Considering you are the parent, it is necessary to connect with the school and get the eligibility criteria out of the way. And if your child meets each of the mentioned criteria, you need to fill in the application and declare your gross monthly income. Every international school you consider for your child determines the local merit scholarship value based on the entire family’s monthly gross income. The exact value of the grant depends on the income slab you adhere to.
How does a particular academic institution determine the income slab?
The ability of the school to determine the financial stead depends on the accuracy of the supplied documents. Firstly, you should ensure that the appointment letter is provided alongside the application followed by the entire family’s income-based documents. Every member contributing toward the family in any given financial capacity is counted as an earning member, and the contribution needs to be declared as the gross income.
However, you also need to provide the tax assessment details to help the school’s accounting department ignore the deductibles and only consider the tax-free income. In case the student is staying with the local guardian, their family’s gross income is considered along with the application.
Once every aspect of your income is evaluated and determined, the school categorizes you as per the set income slabs and categories. In the case of local merit scholarships, most credible schools consider four specific categories to determine the grant’s final value. The usual range, regardless of the choice of school, is fixed at 60k-160k.
For students with family income less than 60k, schools are expected to offer grants amount to 80 percent of the tuition fee. While the first category or Category A equates to an 80 percent rebate on the tuition fee, the 60k-80k slab or the Category B equates to 35 percent reimbursement on the tuition fee.
Certain academic institutions also offer 25 percent and 15 percent rebates for 80k-100k and 100k-160k gross income categories, respectively. Therefore, as a parent, you need first to ascertain the tuition fee and make calculations accordingly. However, as the scholarship grants are only applicable to the tuition fee, you still need to pay the hostel allowances, maintenance fees, examination fees, and other costs in full, provided no special facilities are available other than the local merit scholarship.
Suffice to say, you must take time to understand what the scholarship covers to take full advantage of the opportunity your child will get.
