Its president, Ibrahim Ali, said since education was vital for young Malaysians, it should be given priority.
“However, the government does not seem to emphasise on education and does not see the suffering of the people.”
Ibrahim claimed the cost of tertiary studies had increased by 30 per cent, but the annual funding for education had been cut by 30 per cent.
He said the saddest part was 700 Public Service Department (JPA) scholarships were frozen and the cost of educating them was RM141 million.
“However, the annual allocation for the Prime Minister’s Department is RM20.3 billion. What is RM141 million compared with RM20 billion?
“The government is obviously wasting public funds and this cannot be tolerated.
“The people – especially Bumiputeras – must demand their rights guaranteed under the Constitution,” Ibrahim said in a statement today.
In January, the PSD suspended disbursing funds and halted its e-profiling system for all tertiary courses, including pre-university programmes, both locally and abroad.
The government’s decision was made as it expected lower oil revenues, with Brent crude scraping a 12-year low at USD28 per barrel at the time. Now the prices are hovering around USD50 a barrel.