A total of 412,245 borrowers did not service their National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) loans as at Aug 31, said Education Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.

The deputy prime minister said, of the total, Malays formed the largest number of defaulters at 328,550, followed by the Chinese (55,445) and Indians (28,250).

He said there were currently 1.24 million PTPTN borrowers when replying to a written question by Lim Lip Eng (DAP-Segambut) at the Dewan Rakyat in Kuala Lumpur today.

Muhyiddin said the enforcement implemented included blacklisting errant borrowers from going overseas, as well as summonses to raise defaulters' awareness, understanding and responsibility to repay their loans.

He clarified that such action was not made arbitrarily, without any room for borrowers.

"Based on its existing work procedure, PTPTN has been flexible in recovering loans from borrowers before they are blacklisted," he said, adding that the move to blacklist, via immigration department, was a last resort to remind hardcore defaulters to repay their loans.

Muhyiddin said PTPTN had opened 12 state PTPTN offices, two one-stop centres and four branch offices at strategic locations to enable borrowers to negotiate loan settlement.

Apart from that, he said PTPTN had also given borrowers an incentive as announced by Prime Minister Najib Razak in the 2013 Budget last year.

It involved a 20 per cent discount for the settlement of the entire loan from Oct 1, 2012 to Sept 30, 2013 while PTPTN would continue to give a 10 per cent discount annually for those who made consistent repayment according to schedule from Oct 1, 2012.

Meanwhile, Muhyiddin said 1.36 of the 1.42 million or 88.9 per cent of the Muslim pupils from Year One to Year Six could master Jawi.

"There is no data on non-Muslim pupils who are literate in Jawi as Jawi is taught in Islamic Education," he said.

He was replying to a written question by Er Teck Hwa (DAP-Bakri) who wanted to know the number of trained teachers with qualification in written Jawi, as well as the number of Bumiputra and non-Bumiputra pupils who were literate in Jawi.

- Bernama