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.
It would be great to hear from some people who accessed the fund.
Good for you that you have schoolastic loans. In our country, the parents sacrifice for their children’s education up to college due to absence of such kind of offer as in yours.
The student revolving loan scheme continues to make an excellent contribution to the educational development of many deserving barbadians. keep up the good work.
That is one poorly managed programme and some staffers anfd managemnt treat the students like they are beholden to them all cuz they have the power to disburse funds
How come there is no outcry by students past or present?
David wrote
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!
What about those who got scholarships and were not bonded who were denied work in the Public Service?
SSC if you read our article you would conclude the the problem with the fund would never impact the student unless the fund balance fell and this has happened in the past. The issue is mainly back-office transparent to the student.
David
I am sorry, but your article is nothing more that rumor-mongering and serve no real purpose other that to cast allegation on the integrity of public officers. What is the real concern if the fund is not impacting the students?
SSC it seems that it is your job to rebut everything which is anti-BLP. We made some further calls and we have been assured that the management of the Student Revolving Fund has been seriously mismanaged in recent years. Why don’t you check it out by asking your friend Mascoll? The Ministry of Finance should have a say we think.
David
First of all, thanks for admitting your anti-BLP stance.
I continue to ask the question what is the real issue if the beneficiaries of the funds are not being impacted?
It is not enough to say the fund is being mismanaged. You can say that about anything including this blog. The critical issue is to provide evidence of mismanagement… you have not done so. So what’s your problem?
SSC there are times when we will be satisfied based on our investigation that there is fire to a story. We will toss it in the public domain for comment like we have in this case. Let us remind you that we don’t have the resources of a 60 Minutes.
David , there need to be substance when you make these kind of loose allegation. People lives and livelihood are at state. You just cannot sully the reputation of persons in this manner. I really don’t understand where you are at on this one or why you aredoining it. Please cut out the innuendo and bring on the evidence.
SSC we stand by our article.
David , my point is made
SSC has either benefited from the fund without repaying or knows people who have been benefiting without repaying. I myself have sought to access funding from body and the amount of time it has taken and the amount of red tape certainly raises an eyebrow that all is not well. The BLP administration is writhe with placing its cronies in government positions who are not qualified, you want proof ? I know of numerous people in my area who have not even properly completed their secondary education and are holding vital positions as government accountants etc. Get your facts straight Mr. SSc I am not of either political persuasion but the writing is well on the wall. It is obvious that only the pimps and acolytes of the former BLP administration cannot see it.
Thanks for your support on this story. We stand behind our source but unfortunately we couldn’t release names for fear innocent people maybe become embroiled in the issue. We suspect that SSC will disappear because he was obviously an insider in the Mascoll camp. Many of his predictions have gone by the wayside and so too his credibility. Hopefully we can encourage him to come back to the blog under a different moniker.
How about the people who ended up paying back twice as much that was borrowed because of shoddy accounting and after spending over a year of trying to get the situation rectified without any final conclusion? The Fund is good but anyone who borrows, my advice is get an outside accountant to check your account and verify what is happening.
DEAR SIR, with all do respect i would like to have a student loan so that i could futher my studies.I would to set the exams in june 2010.subjects are as follow,english and scocial studies.