Gov’t abolishes requirement for guarantors for students’ loans – Clarke
KINGSTON, Jamaica- Jamaicans seeking to access tertiary level education will no longer need to have a guarantor in order to secure a loan from the government-run Students’ Loan Bureau (SLB), effective April 1.
Finance and Public Service Minister Dr Nigel Clarke made the announcement of the abolishment of the decades-old requirement on Tuesday as he opened the 2024/25 Budget Debate in the House of Representatives.
The SLB provides financing for over 4,000 students seeking to access tertiary education annually.
Clarke reminded that in the 2022/23 Budget, the government removed the requirement for guarantors to be provided for applicants who are wards of the State.
“Within 12 months of that policy change, the number of wards of the State [applying for a students’ loan] increased by 100 per cent from 46 to 98,” he said.
He also highlighted that in 2023, the government lifted the requirement for guarantors for individuals on the Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH).
Clarke shared that within 12 months, the beneficiaries of students’ loans who are on PATH jumped from 92 in the previous year to 547, an increase of 185 per cent.
“In the face of this staggering evidence as to the inhibiting effect of the requirement of a guarantor, how do we keep it?” Clarke asked rhetorically.
The finance minister shared a story of a constituent who works in an ice cream shop and whose son graduated from the Jose Marti High School in 2019 with seven subjects. He was desirous of attending university but could not do so because his mother was not earning enough to stand as his guarantor.
Both Sheryll and her son Maliek, were in the gallery at Gordon House for Clarke’s Budget presentation on Tuesday when he turned to them and said “I want to be the first to say to them live and direct that come April 1st there will be no guarantors required for students’ loans”.
Clarke said that under this policy, “Maliek will be the first in his family, the son of an ice cream shop customer service representative, to go to university because of the policy change that I’m talking about today”.
He argued that the requirement for a guarantor for a student loan was regressive as it discriminates against low-income families.
