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Aug 16, 2014 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom
I do not see why the University of Guyana should have to close its doors unless the government provides loans to students. I do not see, also, why the government should continue to provide such funding.
First of all, the Student Loan Facility operated by the Ministry of Finance is virtually bankrupt. This facility was intended to be a revolving one, but scores of students who have graduated from the University of Guyana, have been delinquent in repaying their student loans, despite the very generous grace periods that they have been given. As a result, the student loan facility was not replenished by repayments but by grants made by the government each year.
Unfortunately this year, the opposition parties in their attempt to derail certain activities by the Ministry of Finance were forced to cut the vote under which the student loan facility fell. The intention was not to cut that loan facility, but because it fell under a line item which they disapproved, the entire line item was disapproved. There is therefore no money for the Ministry of Finance to allocate for loans to students.
The opposition parties have indicated that they will support a supplementary provision for the restoration of these funds if it is brought before them. Well, it could not have been brought before them, because they have rejected the right of the Minister to restore funds in his Budget which were not approved, even though in the minister’s estimation, the Constitution and the country’s financial laws allow him to do so within certain limits.
In fact the opposition parties have gone as far as taking the Minister to the Privileges Committee. One opposition parliamentarian from APNU did indicate on public television that this was one of the steps taken to prevent unlawful spending by the Minister. He also indicated that APNU would be approaching the Courts for a declaration on the issue.
However, in typical opposition style, the cart has been placed before the horse. Instead of approaching the Court and then awaiting the verdict before referring the Minister to the Privileges Committee, the back-to-front opposition has taken the Minister to the Committee of Privileges, even as it is now saying that it will be approaching the Courts for a declaration as to whether the spending by the Minister was unlawful. It is hard to see how anyone can be asking the Minister to restore funding, unless this entire issue of the legality of the restoring of funds to the Budget is determined.
I do not see how, in the face of this conundrum, the Minister of Finance can now be asked to bring a supplementary provision before the National Assembly so as to provide funding for the Student Loan Facility. For all intents and purposes, the government is facing an impending no–confidence motion because of how the opposition parties view certain spending by the Minister.
In other words, it is the opposition parties who hold the fate of the Student Loan Facility in their hands. It is for APNU to do as promised and to approach the Courts for a declaration on the issue of the Minister’s spending, and upon a determination of this issue, for the Minister to act.
Even if the Minister wants to restore the funds immediately, he cannot do so without again being accused by the opposition of illegally restoring funds. In any event, the National Assembly is in recess and will not reconvene until October, by which time the semester for the University would have commenced.
But there is no reason for the government to be continuing with this Student Loan Facility. It cannot be said to be prudently managing this fund if in the face of its present bankruptcy, it continues to pour hundreds of millions of dollars each year into a facility so that students, being charged the lowest university fees in the Caribbean, can pay for their tuition.
The University of Guyana recently increased fees to $210,000 per year for most programmes. This amounts to just $17,500 per month per student. There are some students whom I am sure are paying more than that sum on transportation by special hire cars to get to and from campus. There are students whom I am sure are spending in excess of that sum on phone calls every month. There are students I am sure who spend more than that on entertainment each month.
And while finding such a sum may seem prohibitive, I do not see why these students cannot approach the banks for a loan to pay these fees.
A few years ago, some commercial banks launched a promotion to lend monies to persons to equip themselves to attend Jamzone. Well, if persons can borrow to attend Jamzone, students can very well take a loan from a bank to finance their education.
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