No New Sponsorship Offers For Studies In Egypt

PUTRAJAYA (Malaysia), Feb 17 (Bernama) -- The Higher Education Ministry is not giving new scholarships for local students intending to further their studies in Egypt as the situation in that country is still not completely stable, said Minister Idris Jusoh. "However, it is the right and choice of students if they still want to study there on their own. "Parents who want to send their children overseas should know the latest situation there. "Right now, the situation in Egypt has not fully settled down, our embassy there is still monitoring the security situation there," he told reporters after handing out contributions from the Malaysian Students Education Fund to students, here, Thursday. Idris said it was understood that at present, Malaysian students in Egypt who were sponsored by the government were those finishing their studies. At the event Thursday, Idris handed contributions amounting to US$94,000 from the fund initiated by the Federation of Peninsular Malay Students (GPMS) to 16 Malaysian final-year medical and dentistry students who are still studying in Egypt. He said the money was given to students in Egypt who were facing difficulty paying the tuition fees of their universities. "The GPMS contribution today is for the second phase, while in the first phase, US$92,000 was given to 10 students studying in tertiary institutions in Egypt," he said. Political secretary to the prime minister, Jailani Ngah represented Najib Razak in presenting a contribution of US$224,395 (RM1 million) to the education fund. (US$1=RM4.45) -- BERNAMA