The Costly Mistake of Cancelling Student Grant-In-Aid for Student Loan Scheme

The Costly Mistake of Cancelling Student Grant-In-Aid for Student Loan Scheme-A Rejoinder On The Payment of Fees At The USL

Access to quality education is not just a privileged, but the right of every citizen across the globe.

At a time when several African countries are striving to provide free university education to their citizens, the University of Sierra Leone, in its recent move has resulted to driving students out of exam halls for nonpayment of tuition fees.

According to the authorities, no student will be allowed to write any semester exam without the fulfillment of all financial requirement.

Sheku Putka Kamara is a Lecturer and Exam Coordinator at the Faculty of Mass Communication at the Fourah Bay College.

In his recent opinionated piece, he questioned “why should anyone wish to go to college, get educated, but not pay fees? We don’t have to be apologetic about some of these things….. ‘why must people and in this case students, who have not paid fees be allowed to write exams and enjoy campus facilities?”.

While Mr. Kamara happens to be sympathetic on the side of his employers, he failed to recognize the economic side of the students and their families.

In my opinion, why not allow students to write their exams and hold on to their grades, or possibly their results until payments are made before they are released? Driving them out of the exam hall is a recipe for them to miss a whole year even if they later paid and retake the exam.

Before now, student used to benefit from the decade grant-in-aid scheme that ensured equal educational opportunity for under-privileged families in the country.

Prominent politicians and leaders today, benefitted from such scheme irrespective of where they hailed from.

This was however cancelled by the Government of Sierra Leone with the introduction of the Student Loan Scheme (SLS) in 2021. And the effect of that cancellation has greatly affected deserving students in their pursuit of higher education.

For a student to benefit from the SLS, there has to be a qualified guarantor that should meet the scheme’s requirements, and must show the ability to repay the loan based on the SLS’s term.

Unlike the previous grant-in-aid that only required excellent grades and performance, such criteria, has disqualified brilliant Sierra Leoneans the opportunity to educate and be meaningful to nation’s building.

Another key requirement for the awarding of the SLS is employment status known as PIN Code. This also limit private employees outside government institutions from getting the aid.

Since its introduction, I haven’t seen any beneficiary of the SLS because, its model operates on a high interest rate instead of providing the basic opportunity for the average citizen.

Each year, thousands of graduates leave the university with good grades and results. But getting employed remains a big challenge in the country.
Therefore, how do you expect a high school leaver to be eligible for PIN Code when he or she is not employed?

The Way Forward

President Julius Maada Bio in 2018 introduced the Free Quality Education to give access to every child in Sierra Leone.

His government has invested a lot in building primary schools, increasing the number of school going pupils.

Already, there are thousands of high school graduates waiting to be enrolled in universities while some are already pursuing their dream courses.

The government cannot afford to invest huge amounts of money from elementary to high school schemes, and allowed those investment to go down the drain by not providing a flexible tertiary model of learning for university students.

Despite government subsidies and support, these universities are bent on increasing tuition fees year after year without providing quality education.

Recently, there have been so many questions regarding professionalism, transparency and accountability in our educational system.

In the meantime, the jobs might not be there for graduates. But it will be better for us to build a strong human resource for the future by giving educational access to everyone.

President Bio needs to seriously look into the current SLS model.

If we are to sustain the current SLS model, the Government should also provide employment opportunities for students leaving universities to work for the various institutions.

This will enable the government to easily recover the cost of their education.

Since we are told that, education is they key, denying the youthful population of a country access to higher education is locking the progress, development and the future of that country.