THE EDITOR, Sir:ON OBSERVING the most recent financial statement of the Students Loan Bureau (SLB) my interest was aroused somewhat.
It was Michael Manley's dream to provide free education up to tertiary level. Many Jamaicans today, who are making significant contributions to their companies and the country, by extension, are the beneficiaries of the Manley vision. Where would these people be had it not been for the Manley vision? In the 1980s the JLP had a difficulty maintaining this policy and as such a fee for tertiary students was introduced. The SLB is supposed to assist needy students in paying the required fee. It is widely accepted that free education is not possible because of the Government's predicament.
The big surplus of the SLB seems to indicate that tertiary education has moved from free education to exploitation of the needy. It appears to me then that the honest needy borrowers are being exploited to fuel the SLB's drive for profit. The existing high interest rate structure, which rewards the SLB with BIG surplus, needs to be revisited. This would definitely reduce the number of "dead beats."
With its existing loan repayment terms, the SLB is a gun to the head, and the university with its present increase in fees is about to pull the trigger.
I am etc.,
KEMMEHI LOZER
9 Miles, Bull Bay
St. Andrew.
