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Students still unhappy with loaning system
2007-09-16 13:20:20
By Evans Rubara
Many students who applied for loans from the Higher Education Students Loans Board (HESLB) for the 2007/2008 academic year are frustrated at the demand to produce various documents which they sense are not that important.
The students told this paper during recent visits at HESLB offices housed at Msasani TIRDO (Tanzania Industrial Research and Development Organisation) complex that the loans board was complicating the process in a bid to discourage many of them from accessing loans.
``The loans board has put too many little requirements which in reality discourage many of us from following up our loan applications lodged with the board for consideration.
A student who has applied for the loan is forced to spend too much money and time running from one place to another to complete the form,`` complained Saye.
Saye is questioning the rationale of paying 10,000/- upon submitting loan application forms before a student receives an admission in a high learning institution.
``I wonder whether there is any credible reason why the loans board should ask the students to pay 10,000/- before receiving an admission although instructions on HESLB-SLF 1 Number 6 Section D require a student to submit the form with an attached admission letter,`` he voices his concern.
However, Cosmas Mwaisobwa of HESLB`s department of Information, Education and Communication says: ``We encourage early form processing before students get admission confirmation because of important reasons.
Students short listing comes late and the process is taxing with a lot of travels here and there to complete.``
Despite the reasons offered by Mwaisobwa, first-year student Jacqueline Mosha who was applying for a loan remarks: ``The entire process is frustrating.
We are now asked to take our high school certificates to the primary courts for verification.
What does the magistrate know about the school certificates?``
She adds: ``Tanzania has changed in so many ways.
Even religious leaders are now asking for payment to sign the forms, leave alone the primary courts where magistrates demand between 1,500/- and 3,000/- to sign a form. I have spent close to 100,000/- in that process alone.``
Other students complained over the board\'s information dissemination system, terming it poor.
``The board has the poorest information dissemination strategy, only meant for students who live in urban areas with access to television, radio and newspapers,`` remarks Geoffrey Kiwele, who confirmed his worries that even if such important information to the students was carried in newspapers, not many of them could get it in time.
The board envisages loans to about 55,000 students in the 2007/08 academic year although actual statistics could not be available.
Mwaisobwa said: ``I do not have statistics of students who applied and received the loans on annual basis since the board was established but I can say that last year we issued loans to about 38,000 students and this academic year our projection is to disburse loans to 55,000 students.``
He argued: ``We believe that the information dissemination system we have now is the best.
We trust that even in the remotest of areas we can reach the students who have applied for the loans.
In case of those who are not reachable by even radio stations with the widest geographical coverage their relatives and friends would inform them.``
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