THE government has provided over 480bn/- in loans to students in all higher learning institutions in the country, the Deputy Minister for Education, Science and Technology, Engineer Stella Manyanya, told the National Assembly here yesterday.
The deputy minister was responding to a question by Mattar Salum (Shaurimoyo-CCM), who said that there were several complaints from Zanzibar over small number of students getting loans from the higher learning institutions, a situation that is causing the number of experts in the island to go down.
Such situation, according to the MP, will cause Zanzibar not to compete in the labour market in East and Central Africa and the country as a whole.
He thus wanted to know whether the government does not see that the Higher Learning Students Loan Board was required to allocate a special percentage for students from the Island and the amount that was allocated for the 2015/2016 financial year.
The deputy minister said that provision of loans to students for higher learning institutions comply with the laws, regulations, standards and guidelines provided regularly by the government through student loans board of higher education.
Among important qualification for the student to be considered to get such loans, she said, include the applicant should be a citizen of the United Republic of Tanzania, to be needy, disabled or orphans.
In the supplementary question, the lawmaker pointed out that some students continue to get government loans at a small rate so far, leading them not to meet the needs of their relevant institutions in which they were enrolled. He wanted to know why the government should credit some money to these students so that they can meet the requirements of the relevant institutions.
The MP further pointed out that there were other students, who were receiving such loans for a long time, but the government has decided to cancel those loans and he did not know what the reason behind it was.
He, therefore, wanted to know the government’s plan to restore these loans to enable the students meet their needs and continue with their studies effectively.
In her response, the deputy minister pointed out that the government would like to provide loans to more students, but if possible to every student to get a loan according to the needs of the college they are studying.
But since the money is not enough, it becomes difficult to do so and the government look where the need is. “So based on that, I will only say that the government will continue to allocate money to help more students,” she said.
About cancellation of loans, the deputy minister admitted that it was true that there was termination of such offer to some of the students for lacking the required criteria.
However, she said the government was going on with investigating the matter to see that indeed the affected persons did not deserve to get the loans, but the service will be restored for the ones who deserved with all the qualifications.
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