Report on review of education loans ready

Report on review of education loans ready

By Bernard LugongoThe Citizen ReporterDodoma. The government is implementing a directive from the last meeting of Parliament that required it to table a Bill on reviewing the Law on Education Fund.The amendment is expected to give room for identifying alternative sources of funds to finance higher education, the Parliament was told yesterday.The deputy minister for Education and Vocational Training, Mr Philipo Mulugo, said a task force formed in the last meeting to identify extra sources of funds for loans to higher education students has submitted its report to the ministry.He was responding to a question from Mr Rashid Ali Abdallah (Tumbe-CUF) who asked for the reason that made the government fail to give loans to some students last year despite having required qualifications. Mr Mulugo said the failure to provide loans to all applicants was due to insufficient budget funds.He said in 2012/2013 the total of first year students who applied for the loans were 37,315. After the vetting, 34,140 applicants qualified for the loans. But those who managed to get loans were 30,319, equivalent to 88.9 per cent of all applicants, and 11.1 per cent (3,821 applicants) missed, he explained."An inadequate budget and priorities were factors for some students to miss loans," he said. In the previous budget, MP for Iramba West, Mr Mwigulu Nchemba (CCM) proposed in his private motion that the higher education fund should be established to enable more qualified students to acquire loans.