By Mabinty M. Kamara
The Minister of Technical and Higher Education, Professor Aiah Gbakima, has joined other stakeholders in a-day long session to validate the draft Sierra Leone National Student Loan Scheme policy.
The document, according to officials, is the outcome of nationwide consultations, survey and sensitization ahead of the establishment of the student’s loan scheme. They said that it took the committee that was established to work on it four months to produce the draft policy.
The validation ceremony was held on the 5th of November at the Ministry of Finance Conference hall.
In his statement, the Minister noted that the scheme is to ensure that Sierra Leoneans get access to university, teacher training and technical and Vocational education and acquire necessary skills needed to become better citizens.
He added that since the pronouncement made by the president during his address to parliament, the Ministry and other relevant authorities started touring other countries that had introduced the scheme to learn from their successes and challenges in the implementation of the scheme.
Prof. Gbakima went on to note that the scheme was important as it will help cushion the financial burden on students and parents, noting that the Sierra Leone Grant in Aid couldn’t be enough for all.
“It is important for us to know that the grant in aid is not sustainable. Last year we gave 2,480 grants-in-aid and the applicants were about 35,000. And we have a total amount of over 53,000 students in our institutions of higher learning. So if you have this kind of money and you cannot satisfy all the students, then it becomes a problem,” he said, adding that grant-in-aid couldn’t be offered to students in private institutions. He said the student loan scheme will give opportunity to all categories of students in tertiary institutions to request for it as long as they met the set criteria.
The Minister called on the stakeholders present to critically analyze the document, noting that once they passed that stage, it would go to cabinet.
“Please be critical because this is the point, after this point, you cannot say I was not present or they didn’t hear my voice, they didn’t take in my comment. So please be critical, because it is only by being constructively critical that we are going to make progress,” he said.
During the presentation of the document, issues such as the composition of the board of the scheme, the sources of fund to support the scheme, management of the funds, qualification of applicants for the scheme, the payment method and time, guarantors, among others, were discussed by the meeting.
