Student loans come under spotlight

HA NOI — Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan will establish inspection groups to examine the implementation of student loan policies in various cities and provinces with extraordinarily high and low levels of outstanding loans, according to the Government Office.

Members of the inspection groups will include representatives of the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET), the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA) and Viet Nam Social Policy Bank.

The inspections are scheduled to be completed by the end of the month.

A one-year summary of the policies is expected before August 20 in order to improve the implementation of said policies by the time the new academic year begins, according to a Government Office notice issued on Monday.

The Deputy Prime Minister also required the Finance Ministry to provide over VND4.05 trillion (US$241 million) to the Social Policy Bank for student loans for the first semester of the 2007-08 academic year, by the end of November.

To increase the effectiveness of student loans, Nhan asked city and provincial people’s committees to provide accurate numbers of poor students eligible for student loans.

Meanwhile MoET and MoLISA are to make early predictions of the total number of admitted students at the entrance exams to help the Social Policy Bank work out next year’s demand for student loans.

The bank reported that by the end of May, almost 750,000 students have received soft loans worth a total of VND5.3 trillion ($312 million) since the policy took effect last October.

The number accounted for more than a quarter of the total 3.1 million students of higher education institutions and vocational schools nation-wide.

Students received VND800,000 ($50) a month at a monthly interest rate of 0.5 per cent.

However, MoET is considering raising the monthly supplement to VND1 million ($60) due to inflation.

Meanwhile the ministry is drafting a proposal to set a new tuition schedule for higher education institutes, as many poor students cannot afford the current rates.