The Editor, Sir:

It was proposed recently that the Students' Loan Bureau (SLB) has limited funds and the decision was taken that these funds would be allocated giving priority to certain areas of studies in allocating these funds. What is the big issue with that?

We must realise that in order to make the most of what we have we need to use it wisely. There are certain areas of studies that are relevant to our local development and I do not see why there should be a problem with assigning priority treatment to these areas to ensure the availability of such skill sets.

Deciding priorities

Yes, it may require persons to rethink their career options, but what is wrong with that? If our people are not trained to meet our manpower needs, what alternative do we have Import the required skills and either have an educated set with no job fit or facilitate brain drain to countries where there is a demand for such skills.

In simple terms, if we need farmers, we need to provide the incentive for persons to be trained as farmers; we need to direct the supply of labour to the area(s) where it is needed. My hope is that we can get it right in deciding on the areas of priorities.

I am, etc.,

ANGELA BISASOR

a.bisasor@gmail.com