November 19, 2020
One of the facts generally accepted is that education is important. Education is essential to all aspects of human life, growth and development. Education is not only beneficial to individuals, it equally benefits communities and the country as a whole. Prosperity and development of a county can not be guaranteed if its citizens, especially the youth, are not well educated. Unfortunately, higher education comes with costs which some less privileged sectors of the society cannot afford to finance it. In order to ensure that there is no gap between the rich and the poor in accessing higher education, Government is supposed to put in place laws and policies to bridge this gap.
The establishment of the Higher Education Students’ Loans and Grants Board (HESLGB) is one of such mechanisms. However, ensuring equal access to higher education is not only the role of Government. There are several players who are supposed to take a role in educating the youth.
From 1985 to date, there are several Malawians whose education was supported by the Government through loans. These people have crucial role to play in educating the youth. According to section 27 of the HESLGB Act, these people have the duty to repay these loans. This is aimed at creating a sustainable revolving fund for supporting the needy students.
Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies, Non-governmental Organization (NGOs), and any other institution that employs people have very important role in educating the youth. According to section 29 of the HESLGB Act, all employers have the following duties;
Section 30 of the HESLGB Act, further stipulates that employers who fail to adhere to the provisions of the Act commit an offence and are liable for a fine of MK1,000,000 for each employee with an outstanding loan.
As corporate citizens, companies in the private sector have a responsibility to improve the living standards of their surrounding communities and that of Malawi in general.
Education is one sector that companies can invest in since it helps is improving the quality and living standards of individuals and their communities. Companies can partner with the Loans Board in supporting needy students as part of corporate social responsibility thereby contributing to the improvement of the living standards of many Malawians.
It is the responsibility of parents or guardians to educate their wards. Therefore, their role is to provide the necessary information on the neediness to access the loans so that only the needy students get the loans. Parents or guardians can also take the role of cost sharing in the financing the education of their ward if they have the economic capability to do so.
From 1985 to date, there are several Malawians whose education was supported by the Government through loans. These people have crucial role to play in educating the youth. According to section 27 of the HESLGB Act, these people have the duty to repay these loans. This is aimed at creating a sustainable revolving fund for supporting the needy students.
The youth themselves also have crucial roles in ensuring that they access education. Their roles include: proactive sourcing of accurate information, adhering to rules and regulation that govern their institutions, adhering to the set processes and procedures for accessing loan facility, using proper channels of communicating grievances, lobbying government for funding in programs that benefit the youth and speaking out against injustices that affect their education.
Each member of the society has to keep in mind the fact that the future prosperity and development of Malawi can be guaranteed if the youth are educated. Therefore, each member of the society is supposed to play a role in educating the youth. These roles can range from;
providing a student with information about the loan facility, contributing towards supporting a needy student, employing needy students on temporally basis, holding government and its agencies accountable, lobbying government for more funding towards education and any other roles that can help in ensuring that the youth are educated.
It should be emphasized here that education is a powerful driver of development and that every member of the society has a role to play in ensuring equal access to education.
Therefore, Loans Board would like to call upon all Malawians to join hands in helping the ‘Tonse’ Government in ensuring that all deserving students access tertiary education and that they are enabled to complete their programs with particular focus on those coming from economically challenged or poor backgrounds.