From January 2026, a household income of $4,000 or per capita $1,000 unlocks full fee waivers, free textbooks and uniforms, meal support and transport subsidies. The whole scheme, itemised.
By Marcus Toh · 2026-04-19
In October 2025 MOE announced the biggest FAS expansion in years: from Academic Year 2026, the income ceiling rises from $3,000 to $4,000 gross household income, or from $750 to $1,000 per capita income. Sister schemes moved too, the UPLIFT Scholarship to $5,500 GHI or $1,375 PCI, and the Edusave Merit Bursary to $9,000 GHI or $2,250 PCI, from November 2025.
| Level | Benefits |
|---|---|
| Primary | 100% subsidy of miscellaneous fees, free textbooks and school attire, meal subsidies for 7 meals a school week, and transport: 70% of school bus fares or $21 a month public transport subsidy |
| Secondary | 100% subsidy of school and miscellaneous fees, free textbooks and attire, meal subsidies for 10 meals a school week, and the $21 monthly public transport subsidy |
| JC / Centralised Institute | 100% subsidy of school and miscellaneous fees, plus a $1,600 annual bursary inclusive of transport |
Applying is deliberately low friction: online, or a form submitted to the school, and a family with children in different government or government aided schools submits one form to any one school. Schools also hold their own case by case assistance beyond FAS, and lower income households can apply for subsidised broadband and a laptop through IMDA's DigitalAccess@Home. Where these costs sit in the bigger picture is mapped in our education cost guide.
The saddest sentence I hear in this job is a parent saying they did not know, months into a year of quiet strain, that the help existed, and the second saddest is a parent who knew but would not apply because of what it might signal. So let me say the quiet part: FAS is an entitlement, not a charity case, the eligibility was just widened on purpose because the government wants more families using it, and nobody at school treats a FAS child differently, the textbooks and uniforms are the same ones.
And the arithmetic is not small: fees gone, books and uniforms free, meals covered, transport subsidised, that is hundreds of dollars a year returned to a stretched household, money that can become the one enrichment class or simply less pressure at home. If your income sits anywhere near $4,000, spend the ten minutes on the form this week. The scheme was widened to reach you, so let it.
The device sits under the Personal Learning Device programme, where MOE provides further subsidies for lower income students so they incur no out of pocket expense, so a FAS family should not be paying for the PLD out of pocket either.
MOE lists MOE Kindergartens, the School of the Arts and the Singapore Sports School as having their own financial support schemes, and independent schools run the MOE Independent School Bursary, so the FAS form is the right one for government, government aided and specialised schools.
This is a common enough worry that it sits in MOE's own FAQs about attire and textbooks bought before approval, and the practical answer is to apply early and ask the school directly, because schools administer the scheme and handle timing questions case by case.