The Student Revolving Loan Fund was established under the Student Revolving Loan Fund Act, 1976-20. It replaced the Higher Education Loan Fund, which was then administered by the Tertiary Section of the Ministry of Education, Youth Affairs and Culture.
Purpose
The purpose of the Fund is to grant loans to eligible Barbadians to assist in financing areas of study which are perceived to be of national priority.
Funding
The project was financed jointly by the Inter-American Development Bank and the Government of Barbados but recently it has become self-financing.
Categories for Financing
The categories for financing are as follows:
I. Graduate
II. Undergraduate
Local
Regional
Extra RegionalIII. Post Secondary/Technical Education
IV. Vocational Education
Samuel Jackman Prescod PolytechnicSource: Ministry of youth Affairs & Sports
Information coming to our ears suggests that all is not well with the management of the the Student Revolving Loan Fund. Information is sketchy and our source is at arms length from that Unit but we have been able to piece together a story which exposes mis-management, cronyism and yardfowlism at the student Revolving Loan Fund. It is generally known by many Barbadians that the fund has been abused over the years by certain ‘high-class’ people. No doubt the fund has helped many Barbadians to achieve their dreams of becoming accredited in some field of study, and for this reason we support the continuing existence of the Student Revolving Loan Fund.
Over the years it appears that several factors have affected the efficient management of the fund. Our source has confirmed that the accounting system in use for many years has been one that the Girls Guides Association would be reluctant to use. The system has crashed on several occasions and has resulted in the inability of management to accurately perform efficient reconciliation. We wonder how many recipients of the taxpayers money who signed contracts to repay loans have been let off the hook because the system crashed! The situation has been compounded because of the questionable recruitment of cronies belonging to the Barbados Labour Party who at the time lacked the experience and thorough accounting qualifications to manage such a significant fund. Anyway, taxpayers should be relieved that some effort has been made of late to retrieve the situation. Contractors who understand a little about accounting have been recruited. We are told that this sad state of affairs was at its peak under the them Minister of Education Mia Mottley. Some feeble attempt has been made in recent months under Minister Anthony ‘too silent’ Wood to retrieve the situation.
What is laughable about this story is the fact that the Student Revolving Fund operates under the aegis of the Ministry of Education which is responsible with overseeing the education and development of our people.
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