Before any policy is implemented it needs to be thought of very well before getting to the implementation stage. If the student loan policy is implemented with sincerity of purpose, it will make education more accessible to quite a number of people, especially the indigent. At the moment, the economy is in comatose and parents find it difficult to feed their children not to talk of sending them to school.
The loan, according to what we have heard, will be given with some stringent conditions. In essence, not everyone will have access to it. It was also stated that the repayment must be done within three years after graduation. In a country that is battling with high rate of unemployment, such graduates risk jail terms due to defaulting. If the economy is buoyant, repayment will not be difficult. Government must not put the cart before the horse.
Although issuing loans to students in various higher institutions is a welcome development, we must first put our house in order by tackling unemployment in the country. All sectors of the economy must be at their best. Thus, a student who obtains a loan will not find it difficult to find a job and repay the loan.
The government must be ready to make the right decisions and make the loan easy to obtain.
Government should also work on how graduates, not only those who obtain loans, will get jobs.
- Susan Akinsola, Department of Mass Communication, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria
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