Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Skills, Youth, and Information, Senator Marlon Morgan, is encouraging the nation’s youth to view the Students’ Loan Bureau (SLB) as a partner in making higher education accessible.
Addressing the inaugural Youth Opportunities Exposition at the Paul Bogle Vocational Institute in St. Thomas on March 26, he highlighted that the Government has been affecting “meaningful and game-changing reforms” at the SLB, so that it can better fulfil its purpose.
He noted that the abolition of the requirement for guarantors for applicants is a significant development, considering that “many [young people] are not coming from endowed socio-economic backgrounds”.
“Many of them, like myself, have not been fortunate in terms of socio-economics. And so, it is financing through the Students’ Loan Bureau that will make that aspiration of attaining tertiary education available to them,” he pointed out.
He said, further, that many of the clients of the SLB would not easily find guarantors.
“They don’t have benefactors readily available. They don’t have financially endowed aunts, uncles, grandparents and someone who can stand as guarantors for them, and that, over the years, would have served as an inhibitor to the higher education pursuits of our young people,” Mr. Morgan said.
The Senator said that the SLB does more than facilitate loans for tuitions, citing provisions for nutritional needs, learning resources, books, computers, and accommodation.
“These are some of the things that, over the years, would have served as a deterrent, an inhibitor, as it were,” Mr. Morgan noted.
“So, the Students’ Loan Bureau is to be seen, young people, as one of your potential partners as you go on to make the best of life and go on to invest in your education and upskilling,” the Senator charged.
The Students’ Loan Bureau is Jamaica’s premier student loan financing organisation.
It began operations in 1970 and was made a statutory body in 1971.
