National Education Insurance/Takaful Plan?

We are seeing an escalating university/college fees year by year and I can't imagine the cost to be like in the next say 18-20 yrs from now.  Thus, we need to explore the best solution to manage the situation at least to our next generation to come.  It is not uncommon for us to see an established statutory retirement scheme such as Employees Provident Fund (EPF) in Malaysia.  There are private and public retirement/pension fund setup by relevant parties mainly to ensure that the retirees/pensioners are well protected during their post-retirement period.  By having such funds, the management costs are kept as low as possible and return may also be 'optimized' due to the huge available funds for investment activities.

Now, if we apply the same concept to the education plan which is also in dire need it would definitely benefits all relevant parties whether public or government.  The entity to manage the fund can be a joint venture company with govt say holding 50%, private sectors mainly insurance/takaful companies say 30%, and the balance may be offered to key personnel in the company as a way of loyalty incentives.  I foresee that this scheme will definitely be much cheaper than the available education insurance/takaful plan available in the market as we can scrap the 171% commissions structure from the pricing and keep the loadings as low as possible in view of law of large number.  The modus operandi can be more or less similar to EPF and the Parliment may issue a law to impose a statutory requirement for all newborn babies to be enrolled in the scheme. Premiums/contributions may be a combination of parent (working), employer, and perhaps a token from the government as a way to reduce the burden of the parent.  In the event of withdrawal due certain reasons such as the child fail to continue the study, the portions of employer and government will be returned.  Thus, the parent will only receive his own contribution plus any investment profit, if any.
By this program, the government may reduce it's subsidy to the educational institutions in phases and ultimately this National Education Plan (NEP) will be able to sustain by itself.  Perhaps, we may offer a 10% equity to the higher institutions (IPTA/IPTS) to ensure that the program is efficiently manage end to end.  By being a shareholder in the entity, IPTA/IPTS should ensure that the cost of their fees are kept as low as possible in order to avoid 'deficit' in the funding.
A question may arise with respect to those unemployed parent.  This is similar situation under the current retirement/pension schemes.  Well, at least we solve bulk of the problem and the minority will be explored accordingly.

Microinsurance/microtakaful

Recently, I've been approached by a PhD student seeking for my advise with respect to her thesis topic on microinsurance.  She has strong interest to research on the topic however she kind of stuck to proceed further on the topic.  During the discussion, I posed her several questions as follows to gauge her actual understanding on the subject matter:
1.  What is the meaning of microinsurance or microtakaful?
2.  Who is the target market for such program?
3.  Is Malaysia a country seriously needed such program?  compared to say Indonesia, Afrika, etc.
4. Why none of the insurance/takaful company is trying to lead this program?
5.  Etc, etc.

Based on the questions and feedback, I concluded to her that microinsurance in just a concept and not actually an insurance products.  You can choose any of the suitable products to market under such concept or program.  It may be life or general insurance products however common products  are life products.
Target market is obviously lower income group of population.  However, another question arise from here i.e. whether the group is self employed or those employed on full time basis.  Here is the trick and gray area pertaining microinsurance.  Full time workers in Malaysia are required to participate in SOCSO (social insurance scheme) and EPF (employees provident fund) which I personally feel that the protections are rather sufficient for those category of population.  Thus, the target shall be those self-employed with low income category.  A question arise then whether those unemployed shall be considered under microinsurance.  Well, if we add these people then it is the responsibility of the government to provide such insurance or social insurance.  So the conclusion is that the self-employed is the target market for microinsurance.  Another problem may arise here is that we may have difficulties to collect complete information pertaining this self-employed group to study further as no single entity which is maintaining the statistics pertaining the group.
Based on the above, I personally feel that Malaysia may not desperately need such program as SOCSO and EPF already well established and 'maybe' well managed.  Those self employed may also participate voluntarily.
Insurance/takaful companies are not very keen to venture into this program in view of small premiums and profits however potential high claims.  The companies already participate in such programs like al-khairat, special packaged for asnaf zakat (tithe), etc.  Nevertheless, the volume may not be feasible for reasonable profits or return.
Countries like Indonesia may be a good place to promote such microinsurance since we can easily find millions of underprivileged citizens all over the country especially major cities like Jakarta, Bandung, etc.  More or less about 40-50 million citizens are categorized as hardcore or very poor in Indonesia.  Malaysia can be considered a much better country in terms of prosperity or wealth distribution among the citizens.
Thus, I recommendation is to switch to other practical and interesting topics to be researched.