Temporary relief was initially given to primary and secondary students on the MOE Financial Assistance Scheme (FAS) during the circuit breaker period, with full home-based learning being conducted.

The relief has been extended, according to a June 8 Facebook post by Indranee Rajah, who is the Second Minister for both the Education and Finance ministries.

Primary and secondary school students will receive S$20 and S$40 per month, respectively, for the months of June and July.

Students on the Special Education (SPED) FAS, and secondary students on the MOE Independent School Bursary (ISB) are also eligible for this temporary relief.

Relief can be redeemed from Transitlink Add Value Machines

Students can redeem the temporary relief via a top-up to their school smartcards, at Transitlink Add Value Machines.

The June top-up can be redeemed from Tuesday, June 9, 2020.

The July top-up can be redeemed from Monday, July 7, 2020.

Extension of relief in line with "careful and calibrated" reopening of schools

The extension of the relief comes as schools reopen gradually reopen with staggered cohorts from June 2, in line with the end of Singapore's CB period.

The gradual reopening means that primary and secondary students from graduating cohorts (Primary Six, Secondary Four and Secondary Five) will attend school every week, from Mondays to Fridays.

Students from other cohorts are on a weekly rotation between home-based learning and returning to school.

All primary and secondary school students, along with Junior College and Millenia Institute students, will only return to school every week when the country enters Phase Two of the post-CB reopening.

Temporary relief the "next best thing" to School Meals Programme

Education minister Ong Ye Kung previously explained that the meal subsidies were meant to address the lack of access to the School Meals Programme, which needy students depend on for their meals.

Cash subsidies, credited to the students' school smartcards, would be the "next best thing", Ong said.

The previous subsidy amount was S$60 for primary school students, with an additional S$20 from the the Sayang Sayang Fund.

For secondary school students, the amount of subsidy was S$120.

The cost of these earlier round of subsidies was S$4.5 million and would benefit around 45,000 students, MOE said.

Top image via Ong Ye Kung on Facebook and Nigel Chua