Excellent graders get bank loans paid off
Education Minister Louis Galea has written to a number of University graduates who achieved excellent results in their final exams, telling them that the government had settled the bank loans arranged under the scheme introduced by the Labour...
Education Minister Louis Galea has written to a number of University graduates who achieved excellent results in their final exams, telling them that the government had settled the bank loans arranged under the scheme introduced by the Labour government when it reduced the stipend to Lm50 per month.
Under that scheme, students had been able to borrow up to Lm50 from the banks, with the government bound to pay the interests on those loans for up to two years after the students completed their course, or up to when they started working.
The scheme was only offered to the October 1997 and 1998 intake of students, since it was then replaced on the change of government.
Under the present scheme a student who follows a four-year university course will receive Lm1,560 more in stipends than under the Labour government.
The current scheme also includes the 'smart card' so that funds given to the students to buy educational material is only used for this purpose.
The education ministry said that of 4,883 students who were eligible to borrow under the old scheme, only 935 (19.15 per cent) had done so.
In his 1998 budget speech, then Finance Minister Leo Brincat had said that the government would settle the borrowing made by students who would have achieved excellent results but no action had been taken for this promise to be implemented.
The ministry said it had now been decided that the government would settle loans made by students who achieved 'First Class Honours, Category 1, Pass with distinction".
Those students who would have paid back their outstanding amounts would receive a cheque with the amounts from the government.
The ministry said it would continue to pay the interest on loans taken by other students according to the original arrangements.
Those students who graduated more than two years ago or who had started working would start to pay their own interest. They were being so notified by the banks. Anyone having difficulties should phone Mr Mario Bugeja on tel: 2598-2754.