By Kefiloe Kajane
The National Manpower Development Secretariat (NMDS) will suspend its policy that requires students to repay 50 percent of their loan bursary into the Loan Bursary Fund (LBF) before they are awarded another scholarship to further their studies.
The minister of development planning, Selibe Mochoboroane, said the arrangement will enable Basotho students in financial disadvantage to undertake postgraduate studies in selected academia as determined by the LBF.
This, he said would be in line with the National Strategic Development Plan II priorities.
He said the criteria for eligibility for loan payment suspension will be determined by the students’ academic merit, the NSDP II priority area of study and the students’ quota.
“The objective of suspending the 50 percent repayment of loans policy is to enable access to bursaries by Basotho students in financial need to upskill their education from unemployable degrees to skills that upgrade postgraduate studies.
“Many Basotho students have pursued mismatching degrees to the labour market and this has worsened unemployment, which is currently at 22.5 percent and has hiked poverty levels to 49.7 percent. These students are unable to secure employment to earn a living and subsequently repay their loan bursaries because most of them also come from impoverished families.
“Therefore, it is important to ease their loan payment burden and be given the opportunity to further their studies to upskill into the labour market by studying matching postgraduate degrees as reflected by national priorities in the NSDP II,” he explained.
Mochoboroane said the need to suspend the 50 percent repayment of the loan bursary is further informed by the requirement human capital to support the productive sectors with the aim of job creation and inclusive economic growth.
He said the NSDP also seeks to entrench and mainstream the achievement of the SDGs particularly SDG4 that is the education goal that aims to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning and opportunities for all.
He further said that with the suspension of the 50 percent loan repayment, the LBF cannot be able to provide every loan bursary seeking Mosotho with funding given the unsustainability of the fund.
He noted that that was due to the fact that the fund relies on government subvention, which has been declining over the years coupled with ineffective loan recoveries.
“The latter is worsened by partial loan repayments by beneficiaries after completion of studies and the increasing unemployment and poverty situation in the country. Therefore, suspension of the loan bursary repayment requirement before one can be provided the next loan bursary can go a long way to ease unemployment,” he said.
However, he noted, it would become “unsustainable and futile” if provided to every bursary seeking Mosotho student.
“The suspension can only be afforded under a rationalized approach. It is important to provide assistance to Basotho students with absolute financial need intending to pursue programmes identified as priorities in the NSDP II. It is important to note that the above achievement could not have been realised without the approval of the executive cabinet, which has noted the high unemployment of the youth and the need to upskill their capabilities to match the labour market,” he said.
Mochoboroane hoped that with the new developments the youth would be able to participate productively in pursuit of economic growth including in the private sector job creation.
Lekhooa Letsatsi a youth from the #BachaShutdown movement, could only say the grouping welcomed the move “as this is one of our grievances that we voiced in the recent past.”
However, he told this publication yesterday that they had met with minister Mochoboroane who promised to look into the rest of their grievances.
