No more personal allowances from govt!

MBABANE – Accommodation, meals and personal allowances will now be excluded from scholarship loans granted by government.

This could take effect as soon as next year, if the draft scholarship policy for pre-service tertiary education is approved.
When this happens, the loans to be granted to students will only cover registration fees, tuition, stationery and textbooks, and other educational costs as will be approved by the Scholarship Selection Board.

Government has all along been proving students with meals, accommodation and personal allowances. In the current academic year, off-camp students at the University of Swaziland got a total of over E23 000 for meals and accommodation allowances only, while those staying on campus got over E15 000 for meals.

However, there will only be an alternative loan for meals, accommodation and personal allowances.
“Scholarship loan applicants shall be required to submit proof of their parents’ inability to earn a combined annual income of E120 000 by means of an authentic letter(s), whose specimen shall be designed by the Scholarship Secretariat, signed and date stamped by their employers and copies of the most recent three monthly advice slips.

The letter (s) from the employer shall provide basic contact details of the company and the individual signing the letter such as: Telephone numbers, physical and postal addresses and to some extent, mobile phone numbers. No scholarship application shall be considered prior to the submission of these parents’ income-verification requirements.”

The commuted distance to and from the institution where the applicant intends to study shall not be less than 80 kilometres from home.
The applicant will be required to fill in a Declaration of Place of Residence form, which must be endorsed by his or her chief or the chief of the area where he or she normally resides in order to meet this requirement and qualify for the accommodation and meals loan.

A student who does not have both parents, shall be required to submit a signed and date-stamped clearance certificate, to be made available by the Scholarship Secretariat, to prove that he/she is not eligible to benefit from the deceased’s estate. In the event he/she stands to benefit from any estate left by the deceased, it will be evaluated to ascertain the extent to which this can allow him to meet the cost of accommodation and meals, otherwise automatic qualification to the loan to cover such costs shall be granted if applied for.

...no full scholarship if parents earn E10 000

MBABANE – The era of awarding scholarships for tertiary education to students admitted at university or college is drawing to an end.

It will no longer be easy for students to get scholarships, as government intends tightening the screws on the award process.
That, at least, is if the draft scholarship policy for pre-service tertiary education prepared by the Ministry of Education last year is finally approved.

All along, government has been awarding scholarships for tertiary education to all students admitted at tertiary institutions within and out of the country.

Government now intends to place emphasis on basic education and making it available to all. In the policy statement and guidelines of the draft, it is stated that the Government of Swaziland will henceforth apply a cost-sharing approach in the award of pre-service tertiary scholarship loans. Currently, government grants scholarship to students studying at the University of Swaziland, Swaziland College of Technology (SCOT), William Pitcher College, Nazarene Teacher Training and Nursing College, Ngwane Teacher Training College, as well as certain institutions of higher learning outside the country.

“Students will be given loans to cover registration fees, tuition, the cost of stationery and textbooks and other educational expenses or costs as may be determined and approved by Scholarship Selection Board,” reads part of the draft policy. It states that only students whose parents’ combined annual income falls below E120 000 per year (about E10 000 per month), will be considered for the award of loans to cover accommodation and meals, in which cases, a verified supporting document must be submitted by the applying student.

A Scholarship Selection Board (SSB) will be appointed to select qualifying candidates and determine priority focus areas for scholarship support. A competent Scholarship Secretariat will also be set up under the Department of Tertiary Education of the Ministry of Education to administer, coordinate, monitor, evaluate, plan and regularly produce reports on the implementation and impact of the scholarship policy.
The Scholarship Secretariat will be headed by the Chief Inspector of Tertiary Education.

Government will further revive the Scholarship Revolving Fund (SRF) and ensure that, through tighter controls on scholarship loan repayments, the Scholarship Loan Fund is self-sustaining and more students are able to access financial assistance at tertiary level.
In this regard, a Scholarship Loan Recovery Unit (SLRU) shall be set up within the Department of Tertiary Education.

Government shall review institutional arrangements and subventions given to tertiary institutions in order to ensure efficiency, cost-effectiveness and sustainability. “Government will continue negotiating with the private sector, particularly industries that have a potential to absorb graduates from local tertiary institutions, and introduce attractive incentives for them to provide support, participate in the financing of tertiary education, and take a leading role in the development of human resources in Swaziland.

Further, government will engage financial institutions in the provisions of student loans to complement the cost-sharing scholarship loan initiative.”
The draft policy states that only applications for scholarship loans to cover first degree costs at university level and certificate, diploma and first degree at polytechnic, colleges and vocational training and health centres shall be considered.

Students who have already been granted scholarship loans by the Ministry of Education shall not qualify, even if the loan has been settled. Applicants requiring a scholarship loan for the second time or more should apply to the Ministry of Public Service. However, the scholarship portfolio now falls under the Ministry of Labour and Social Security.

Jinno Nkambule, Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, said they were still working on the policy. Nkambule said there was a committee that had been selected by the ministry to review the draft.
“It is still a process because from the committee it will have to go to stakeholders, from there to the minister and if the minister blesses it then it will be taken to government,” explained Nkambule. He said it was their wish that in three months’ time, there would be a direction as far as the policy was concerned.

Scholarship not  a right — govt

MBABANE – The award of a government scholarship for tertiary education is not a right but a privilege that has extended to tertiary students over the years.

This is contained in the draft policy for pre-service tertiary education, which is still being discussed in the Ministry of Labour and Social Security. Students have always believed that the award of government scholarship for tertiary education was a right. Government believes that tertiary education is very costly as opposed to basic education.
“An important feature of tertiary education is that it is quite costly.

Statistics indicate that in every given year, the cost of providing education for one student at the University of Swaziland is equivalent to the cost of affording an educational opportunity to 50 pupils at primary school level. At the same time, a scholarship award for one full-time student enrolled in any of the teacher training colleges would on average cover bursaries for about 38 and 10 students at primary and secondary/high school levels respectively.
“It is also important to note that, whilst tertiary education accounts for one per cent of the overall student body, it consumes about 23 per cent of the education budget and this percentage is increasing each year.

“Primary education on the other hand accounts for 77 per cent of all students in the country, yet it only absorbs 35 per cent of the education budget. The percentage of students enrolled in primary schools continues to increase as the country moves towards achieving EFA and the Millennium Development Goals,” reads the all-important document.

Loans to be repaid in six months

MBABANE – Students who get government scholarship for tertiary education will now be expected to fully repay the loans after six months of employment.

Government is owed millions of Emalangeni in respect of scholarship repayment by students who complete tertiary education. This is due to the fact that government currently does not have a mechanism which will ensure that students repay their loans once they get employment.

However, the non-repayment of scholarship loans by students will be a thing of the past if the draft scholarship for pre-service tertiary education is approved.

The draft policy states that the loans issued will be fully repaid by the beneficiaries after six months of employment. Unemployed scholarship loan beneficiaries will be required to report to the Scholarship Secretariat every six months commencing on their date of graduation from the University or College they were pursuing their studies.

“The interest on the loan will be determined by the Ministry of Finance. Students who have been awarded scholarships under the current dispensation will still be expected to repay their loans according to the terms agreed thereto.”

The Scholarship Selection Board shall determine, after verification and analysis of the person’s capacity to pay, whether deductions for repayment of loans for scholarship beneficiaries who are employed on temporary or contract basis, should be instituted, postponed or paid in lower instalments.