The Singapore Democrats are giving out the Mohd Isa Bursary Award and are
calling for applications. The criterion we set was stringent: Only students from families with household per capita income of $450 or less would qualify.
In other words, to be eligible a family of four cannot have a combined monthly income exceeding $1,800. Given that Singapore is one of the most expensive places - if not the most expensive place - in the world to live in, it is unimaginable for a family to subsist on $1,800 per month.
And yet, many of the applications we received are from families whose monthly income is less than $1,800. One of the families, for example, comprise father (sole bread winner as a techinician), mother, three school-going children and an elderly grandmother. Household income - $1,186 per month.
Another application consists of a family of four with two primary-school level children. The father, also the sole bread winner, works as an administrator earning $1,400 a month.