Graduating students can extend concession card validity
From Oct 1, graduating secondary school, junior college (JC), polytechnic and Institute of Technical Education (ITE) students can visit ticketing or top-up machines at MRT stations and bus interchanges, or visit a ticketing counter, to extend the validity of their concession cards for four months after their studies.
The four-month extension, announced previously, will be granted to graduating students whose concession eligibility ends on or after Dec 28, and will allow them to continue to pay concessionary fares on public buses and trains even after they graduate.
Students graduating in 2024 will be the first batch to benefit from this measure, which will apply to all graduating students going forward.
The Public Transport Council (PTC) said earlier that this will benefit about 75,000 students every year.
The council, which regulates fares and ticket payment services, said the move will help students and their families manage the transition between stages of their education, such as for secondary school students enrolling in the ITE or polytechnics.
It will apply to graduating students between two educational stages or those transitioning out of student concessionary benefits, such as JC students going to university or graduates entering the workforce.
Students can go to any ticketing machine such as SimplyGo kiosks and top-up machines at MRT stations and bus interchanges, or visit a ticketing counter, including passenger service centres, from Oct 1 to Dec 31.
Those who do not extend their concession cards by Dec 31 can still do so after that, but the four-month extension will still start from the end of their studies.
The PTC said on Sept 30: “Details have been disseminated to the schools to reach out to their eligible students. If students require any assistance, they may approach staff at SimplyGo ticket offices or (at) passenger service centre(s).”
Future batches of students graduating in 2025 or later will be informed by their schools to extend their concession validity only towards the end of their final year of study, it added.
At present, secondary school graduates will have to pay adult fares before they progress to a JC, poly or ITE. They can still pay concessionary fares for an extra month after they leave secondary school, till the end of January, but will have to pay adult fares thereafter until they enrol in their new school.
For example, students leaving secondary schools for polytechnics, where the academic year starts in April, face a two-month period during which they have to pay adult fares.
Others may have to pay adult fares for a longer period. Secondary school graduates enrolling in a diploma course at Lasalle College of the Arts, for instance, have a transition period of about seven months, as they start school only in August.
The council announced on Sept 9 that concessionary bus and MRT fares for students and other groups will increase by four cents per journey from Dec 28.
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