Students plead for govt leniency

Local tertiary student leaders are pleading with government to relax the financial burden on postgraduate students, regarding the mandatory requirement to repay 50 percent of their sponsorship loan from the National Manpower Development Secretariat (NMDS).

Respective Students Representative Councils (SRC) argue that, more often than not, students seeking to further their studies look up to the government though NMDS to sponsor them.

In a recent interview with theReporter, the president of the Lesotho College of Education (LCE) SRC, Mabote Ralethoko, lamented that undergraduate students, after receiving a diploma, are required to pay 50 percent of their NMDS debt to further their studies.

Ralethoko indicated that this policy has led to many students missing on a bursary opportunity and forfeiting it to other applicants, especially first year students.

“Any student who wants to continue with their studies should not pay anything because people go to NMDS convinced that they will be assisted financially since they cannot afford to pay their way through varsity.

“There are those who have the capacity to repay the required 50 percent, but those who do not are forced to twiddle their thumbs at home. It is extremely difficult for a diploma holder to crack it in the competitive job market,” he said.

He accused the government of restricting prospects for young people when it should be maximising them.

Ralethoko urged government to prioritise generation of career opportunities for the youth, whom he described as a bedrock of the country’s future.

Thapelo Kelepa is a diploma holder who resorted to fruit and snack vending to make ends meet, after he couldn’t make it to undergrad and failing to secure a teaching job.

Kelepa told this publication this week that after graduating with a diploma in secondary education, he applied and was admitted into a teaching degree programme at the National University of Lesotho (NUL).

His application for yet another loan bursary was also successful.  The glitch, though, was that he had to pay back half of the money the government had sponsored her with at LCE.

“I was told I would need to pay 50 percent of the sponsorship fees upfront, and if that was not possible, I could pay 25 percent with the remaining 25 percent to be deducted from my monthly NUL allowance. That did not help; I did not have that kind of money.

“That’s how I lost out on furthering my studies. It does not help that potential employers are always looking for candidates with at least four years’ experience.

“This disadvantages people like me because the only way to get that kind of experience would be by volunteering. Now, that is simply out of the question; I cannot afford to work without remuneration as I have needs to take care of,” Kelepa noted.

He slammed NMDS not treating teaching as a priority field, compared to other disciplines like engineering.

The acting director of NMDS, Thabo Ntoi, said the NMDS repayment policy as provided for in the Loan Bursary regulation of 1987 and the Loan Bursary Agreement and Obligation with students, states that sponsored students should start repaying their loan bursary the first month following the completion of their students.

Ntoi said it is from this policy that students who seek to further their studies right away with NMDS loans after being previously sponsored are also required to repay at least 50 percent of their payable loan and pay the remaining 50 percent on monthly instalments.

“For the academic year 2023/24 the government, in fulfilment of the policy, used financial need determination for students furthering their studies right-away including the NUL post-graduate students to repay their previous loans in order to become eligible for further studies bursaries.

“The repayment arrangements for all students without an income, including the NUL post-graduate students, were made with guarantors, based on their financial affordability, not with the students,” Ntoi indicated.

Late last year, the ministry of finance and development planning announced an improvement in the loan bursary repayment policy for Basotho children willing to further their tertiary education.

The development came after a cabinet directive made on September 8, 2023.

According to the ministry’s statement, tertiary students who have not yet settled their loan bursary debt with NMDS still stand a chance to apply for bursary to further their studies.

With the improved policy, the ministry stated that the students would qualify for loan bursaries without having paid their 50 percent debt and this will only apply to best performing students who want to study national priority studies, to be determined by the ministry.

The statement further stated that such students would be allowed to settle their loan bursaries with the NMDS after completion of their studies.

“The government of Lesotho reaffirms its commitment to improve loan bursaries for Basotho children who are in financial need,” read the statement.