Minister in the Prime Minister's Azalina Othman Said clarified that the government never cancelled any JPA scholarships as alleged by various quarters, though admitted that 744 students who were supposed to go overseas this year have been asked to continue their studies locally.

"I hereby want to stress that the government has never cancelled any JPA scholarships as claimed by various parties.

"In 2016 alone RM1.65 billion has been allocated to sponsor JPA scholars. This clearly shows that the government never sidelined education, thus I hope that all parties will not politicise the issue and confuse the public," she said in a statement today.

Azalina noted that news on her parliamentary reply that RM240 million in expenditure can be saved by the government - by scrapping the 744 scholarships for students due to go overseas this year - has generated negative comments.

The Pengerang MP, who is minister in charge of parliamentary affairs, explained that she answered the question by Teresa Kok, DAP parliamentarian for Seputeh, on money that would be saved if the government scrapped its sponsorship of the 744 students due to study overseas this year.

"However, the sponsorship of the 744 students was continued to allow them to finish their studies up to the undergraduate degree locally as was announced in the budget 2016 realignment on Jan 28," clarified the minister.

She related that the government is currently assisting 49,060 students, comprising 41,324 who are studying locally and 7,736 who are overseas.

Azalina said a full breakdown of JPA scholarship programmes will be released in soon.

The issue of government scholarships grabbed headlines recently after it was discovered that several students due to go overseas under JPA sponsorship were informed that they are no longer going to be financed for overseas studies, resulting in public outcry.

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