March 12, 2021
By Mohamed M. Sesay &James Kamara-Manneh
In a presser held at the Ministry of Information and Communications’ Conference Room, the National Coordinator of the Sierra Leone Loan Scheme Committee Paul Amara has yesterday the 11th of March, informed Journalists that the pilot phase of the 2020/2021 student loan scheme will now target five hundred post-graduate Masters and PhD candidates cross the country.
Paul Amara dilated further that a lot of students have been denied the opportunity to have higher education because of lack of access to funding for tertiary education and that is the more reason they have intended to pilot the student loan scheme with five hundred (500) post graduate Masters and PhD candidates for the 2020/2021 academic year. He added that, the student loan scheme is a new initiative and that they want to make sure that they go through it properly so that the formation would be informed by actuaries and projections, and also by surveys that come from the voices of the people and their concerns which they have done exactly.
He further lamented that what they need to do as a government which has been demonstrated by the President is to provide the necessary supports for students pursuing higher education adding that, the student loan scheme is one way to provide funding to access higher education. He added that they witnessed where students were removed from examination hall at Fourah Bay College because they do not have the money to pay for their fees. He noted that many around the nation are burdened with the need to help one or two individuals who do not have the means to pay fees but equally have the wiliness and desire to pursue higher education and therefore confirmed that the student loan scheme is here to help those categories of students.
He continued that all around the world there is no country that provides free quality tertiary education but rather they could provide free basic quality education as they are doing now under the New Direction Government. He reaffirmed that students need funds and that is what the student’s loan scheme does adding that, they are not oblivious of the fact that the roll out which has targeted Masters and Phd candidates might create some tendencies of mistrust or disappointment to the larger population of undergraduate students that are also waiting for the loan scheme. He added that they want to make sure that they do it right and they want to start well by ensuring that the roll out is done with full commitment of the entire student population in the country pursuing or intending to pursue higher education and therefore, he said they would be eventually co-opted into the mainstream implementation of the scheme.
Paul Amara also noted that the pilot gives every Sierra Leoneans an opportunity to fully assess the impact of the scheme and properly evaluate the activities to ensure that public trust is gained which is very keen in the scheme. He further requested for patience and corporation from all and sundry as they pilot the scheme adding that, the application forms have been completed for student loan and has been tabled before the minister and he believed that it would be approved pretty soon.
He also intimated that they are going to make sure that a potter via the ministry of Technical and Higher Education is created for the student loan scheme so that student can access the potter and download the forms. He also stated that they are going to make sure that they use all the regional offices to ensure that the forms are also available and also ensuring that between March and April2021, deadlines is set for submission of applications and also all other procedures connecting to the forms would be communicated publicly.
“I want to thank the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Technical and Higher Education for helping the committee to get to this point and I can assure you that we are going to do our best to ensure that student loan scheme becomes a reality in this country and there should not be any need why student should not pursue Higher Education because they don’t have money”, he concluded.