PRESIDENT Donald Ramotar yesterday assured that despite the cut of the student loan subvention from an initial $450M to a restored $225M by Finance Minister Ashni Singh, he will not allow the students of the prominent tertiary institution, the University of Guyana, to suffer. 

The President’s remarks came yesterday at a press briefing after he was questioned as to whether any preparations were made so as to absorb the impending fee increase and provide student loans for those attending the institution that would require them to pay their tuition fees.
He said that the issue of the loan subvention is one which is currently engaging the administration and one which involves “active consideration.”
According to the President, the issue will be resolved in time for the new academic year, but has initially posed a problem because of the cut to the loan subvention by the combined Opposition, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and the Alliance For Change (AFC).
Added to that, the President alluded to the fact that the efforts by the Finance Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh to restore some amount of the loan subvention has landed criticisms.
“The budget was cut and it was one of the things we are being criticised about, so the important thing is that we have restored it and we have to look at additional sources or we have to make a decision how we will deal with this,” President Ramotar stressed.
He continued that the issue is close to done at this point in time and emphasised that “we are not going to allow the students to suffer unnecessarily.”
As it relates to recent threats made by the current Vice- Chancellor of the university, Jacob Opadeyi to shut the campus down within the second week of the first semester in the new academic year, the President assured that the matter will be resolved before the next two weeks.

Vice-Chancellor, Professor Jacob Opadeyi earlier this week threatened a shutdown of the entire campus in the second week of the first semester if the Ministry of Finance does not address the issue of access to student loans. Opadeyi asserted his authority as “CEO” to enforce what he dubbed “plan B” for the university, adding that the institution will not remain open only for those students who can afford to pay.
“The real issues that confront us today is the uncertainty about the access to the student loan for our students; up till this afternoon the student loan office is not able to make a statement whether student loans are available for students or not, right now registration has started and this may impact on our ability to actually go into operation for this academic year,” he said.

(By Ravin Singh)