Keep the student focused

Friday, 1 April 2011 00:17 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Cabinet on Wednesday gave approval for a new act to be drawn up by the Legal Draftsman that will give financial assistance to students from low income families to obtain higher education. The basic logic behind this endeavour seems to be to give students the chance to obtain loans for their university education from banks, which would in turn be repaid once they have gained employment.

Such a policy was introduced in the 1960s as well and many were the youth of that age who benefited from it. After a point the loan scheme dwindled due to non-payment of loans and the selfishness of one generation deprived the next of the chance to gain better opportunities. However, in the age-old way of things that go around coming around, the Government has again decided to supplement the inadequate funds provided by Mahapola and other scholarship programmes by giving more freedom to students to decide how and when they should pay for their university education.

Similar systems exist in other countries and have been successful in not only giving the student a more comfortable life and reducing the pressure on parents to provide for their child, but also to choose the level of higher education that they can afford. Interestingly, this latest move by the Cabinet comes hot on the heels of another step that it approved last week – the appointment of a non-State higher education council to regulate tertiary educational institutes.

Everyone knows that the Government is focused on opening the higher education system of this country to foreign private universities. Therefore, it can be argued that this council was established to ease the passage for these universities without causing a violent backlash from student unions and other parties that have been vehemently protesting to keep university education limited to the public sector. By terming the council responsible for all “non-State higher education,” the indication is clear that private foreign universities can also be regulated by this council. In fact, the Education Ministry Secretary had earlier outlined that such a regulatory body would be included in the new Higher Education Act that was drawn up and submitted to Cabinet earlier this month.

However, the point of this column is not to discuss the virtues and de-merits of private higher education, but to advocate for the ideal of universal higher education. Money alone should not be allowed to be the sole judge of entry into university. The only way to ensure that students of merit can enter into highly-recognised foreign universities or public ones is to ensure that they have access to either the necessary funds or are given scholarships. Strong steps must be taken to assure a place for deserving students so that the lopsided situation of only have-nots being relegated to public universities does not come to pass.

Irrespective of the type of education, the students should be given all possible assistance with lower interest rates and the chance to have semi-financial assistance from the university if a full scholarship is not possible. The Government can also introduce the system of the student gaining employment within the campus in exchange for financial assistance for higher studies. The aim is to help the student – the policymakers must keep their eye on that.