What happened to the students’ loans?

By Erick Kabendera
It was hoped that the introduction of the Higher Education Students Loans Board last year would finally mean a lasting solution to the financial problems faced by tertiary-level students in the country.
However, given the frustrations they have encountered in the loan application process, some of the ‘beneficiaries’ are beginning to think it has also introduced a world of bother for them.
Emmanuel James is in his fifth year, studying Architecture at the University College of Architectural Studies (Uclas). He says he has ended up handing the loan application forms in late because there ‘was no clear coordination between the board and the higher learning institutions.’
“We didn’t know anything about how the process would work. Some of us come from upcountry regions so we had to come to Dar es Salaam and pick up the forms and take them back to upcountry to be filled in by our parents and local government leaders,” he says.
The actual process of applying for the loans does seem complicated, but you would expect that.
James’s complaint is that given this, it might have been better if when the University students broke for their vacation and others for the practical training, they were informed on how the process would go. He says the loans application forms were released well after they had broken off for their holidays.
Student’s complain of being either uninformed or confused.
Not surprisingly, last week, the newly established loans’ board released a statement saying close to 20,000 returning students on government sponsorship at various higher learning institutions across the country had not applied for the loans, assuming they would continue to be on government sponsorship.
As of that time, less than 7,000 out of 33,000 students countrywide had successfully applied for the loans, for this academic year, but it was difficult even for these.
Although the 10-page loan application forms are relatively easy to get hold of – from the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education website and at the various higher learning institutions – filling them in is a challenge.
Another student, Peter Mushi is in his final year at Uclas. He says he has spent a lot of money traveling while working on the issue of securing loans and he wonders whether the loans board would account for that kind of thing.
“They pretend to know that most of us come from poor families and we depend on the loans. But then, they complicate the whole process. Where shall we get money for it?” Mushi asks.
Mwikwabe Mwita, the Dar es Salaam University Students’ Organisation (Daruso-Main campus) President is equally unimpressed with the loans board.
“It’s a lie to say that the board was prepared to handle 33,000 students. If 7,000 students struggled to get the loans, what would have happened if all 33,000 had turned in their forms?” says Mwita.
The higher education cost sharing policy that eventually led to the creation of the loans board started in 1992, with the aim of increasing student enrollment for higher education in Tanzania. Speaking last year, during the University of Dar es Salaam’s orientation for newly enrolled students, the Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education Ruth Mollel said that despite the changes, the government will continue with its dedication to educating the nation.
She spoke favourably of the cost-sharing programme:
“To date, records show that more than 25,000 students benefited from the government loans.”
The implementation of the first phase began in 1992 and involved students taking over responsibility for their transport costs, allowances, students’ organisation fees and ‘caution’ money, a deposit that, upon joining a learning institution, every student pays. In other words, whatever the government advanced for these costs was considered a loan and students were required to later pay these monies back.
In the second phase, which was implemented between 1994 and 1995, students became responsible for their accommodation and food costs, on top of those they took over in the first phase.
Subsequently, an evaluation of the two phases was held in Morogoro in 2001 and the country’s stakeholders in education decided then that the third phase should begin.
Following this meeting, the Higher Education Students’ Loans Board was created by the Act of Parliament No. 9 and Section 2, Subsection 1(iv) of 2004. The Act declared students would take over responsibility for all their study costs. That meant the government’s total pull out from paying for tuition and related costs (previously they did so for students under the government sponsorship scheme) at tertiary level and the transferring programme which allowed a move from private to government sponsorship came to an end.
Government stated that it will only continue paying school fees, stationers and for the practical training of students of medicine or in other words, students taking medicine would not be affected by the third phase.
Before becoming a law, the bill to this effect was handed out to various stakeholders including all higher learning institutions for comment through the Parliamentary Committee on Social Services.
The President of the Tanzania Higher Learning Institutions Students Organisation (Tahliso) Manyonyi Bwire thinks the higher learning institutions were not given enough time to consider the bill’s implications if it did pass but adds that before it did, some pressure from the students led to a few modifications.
One demand was for the removal of the article in the bill, which said any employer, would be ‘fined Sh1.5 million if he/she employs any students who had borrowed from the board’ without notifying it but this was not met.
What they managed was to put two representatives on the loans board but even that has not helped to avert their current disillusioned situation.
Some of the interviewed students at the University of Dar es Salaam said they were aware of many amongst them who had not yet picked up or filled in the loans forms. Bwire thinks that most of students who haven’t applied for the loans had not done so because of the section of the loans law that details a daunting list of conditions for collateral from any loans seekers.
“Students should know that the same collateral can be used to guarantee more than one student from the same family and that they can choose one form from what is mentioned,” Bwire says.
Dar es Salaam based Advocate Mutabahazi Lugaziya who has assisted some students to complete and sign the forms does not think the complaint about their complexity should be such a big deal, saying every contract should be in legal language.
“Students have the responsibility of making sure they understand them before they sign them,” Lugaziya says.
He does however say he is worried that today’s students might in future become high-risk for any employer but feels that the forms as they stand were properly designed for their purpose.
“The conditions of any contract should be tough, ” says the advocate.
But, everything suggests that the students don’t know some of this – and in their confusion, they may not know whom to ask. If away from their parents or unable to get hold of someone like Lugaziya, who can they turn to?
Professor Issa Mcholo Omari is in the Department of Adult Education at the University of Dar es Salaam. He says he has more questions than answers about the on-going students’ loans scheme.
The statement issued last week by the loans board blamed the higher learning institutions for slowing the process down, criticizing in particular the practice of not issuing each student with an acceptance letter and preferring to publish their names in a press release.
The University of Dar es Salaam’s Chief Public Relations officer, Julius Saule however says the loans business is between the board and the students. Saule says their role is only to indicate on the students’ forms that they have been admitted to their University and not otherwise. “That is the only role that as the university we are supposed to play,” Saule says.
However, Professor Omari thinks there should have been a better partnership between all three parties involved.
For the loans scheme to be successful, he says, there should be close cooperation between students, the board and higher learning institutions.
“If that was done, there wouldn’t be such problems because now, classes won’t start on time as most of the students will not have secured the loans by then,” he says.
As for the conditions under which the loans are available, the professor is critical of the collateral requirement, saying that the board’s terms are hard to fulfill because about eighty percent of Tanzanians own nothing that can be regarded as such.
He also challenges the required involvement of parents, saying almost all the applicants are above the age of 18 and so can enter any contract on their own. “Why should their parents be signatories of the contract?” says Professor Omari.
In his speech at the University of Dar es Salaam’s farewell in honour of the retiring Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education, Dr Pius N’gwandu, directed the loans board to allow students join their respective institutions by letting them submit just their basic personal data and for all other conditions to be met by December this year.
Still some think this does not offer a solution and want action that is more decisive.
Ends