Seputeh MP Teresa Kok has proposed scrapping the National Service Programme (PLKN) and diverting its funds to provide overseas scholarships.

"According to a parliamentary answer given by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Azalina Othman Said last week, the government stands to save RM240 million a year by cancelling 744 scholarships for overseas studies.

"In early 2015, when the prime minister announced the one-year suspension of PLKN in his revised Budget 2015, he said the move would save the government RM400 million a year," said Kok in a statement today.

As such, Kok said scrapping PLKN this year would free up enough funds to restore the Public Service Department (JPA) overseas scholarships.

The JPA scholarships for this year only allow for studies in local public universities due to shrinking government revenue.

"The government should consider suspending PLKN immediately so that the money saved could be channelled to sponsor the 744 bursary students.

“These students have been deprived of the chance to study at world-renowned universities as a result of the government’s action to convert its promised overseas scholarships into local scholarships," she said.

Kok noted that the PLKN programme was suspended last year and was tentatively going ahead this year with no certainty that it would continue in future years due to budget issues.

Therefore, she said it would best to put an end to the programme this year.

"Why target the nation’s bright students by cancelling their overseas scholarships when it should be the PLKN that should be targeted?

"The government has done an injustice to the 744 bursary recipients when it broke the promise to send them for studies at top universities abroad.

"Bright students are the nation’s assets and they should not be the target in the government’s fund- slashing exercise," she said.