The chairman of the Committee on Commissions,Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE)-Joel Ssenyonyi has recommended the adoption of district quota approach for students loan scheme to ensure equity .
This is because the committee noted imbalances in the distribution loans from the Higher Education Students Financing Board across different regions.
The observation was made following a presentation of the auditor general’s report for the loan scheme financial year 2022/2023.
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A number of parliamentarians in favour of the recommendation mentioned that the report revealed that there was a huge gap in the number of intake from some regions compared to others .
For instance, places like Madi-Okolo, Buhweju and Bukedea among others were sighted to have had hardly beyond 5 students taken up in contrast with Ntungamo and Mbarara having over 400 students benefiting from the scheme at a single intake .
The district quota approach according to parliament would help to iron out such discrepancies since district leaders would know who should truly benefit from the scheme.
The district quota according to the parliamentarians will operate just like the government sponsorships scheme meant to help the underprivileged within those areas.
However, though highly in favour of the district quota system, a few concerns were raised to be ironed out for the system to be effective.
Sarah Opendi, the District Woman Member of Parliament for Tororo district noted that there are regions without A’level in their schools. Such areas would miss on benefiting from the scheme and yet there is a call for equitable distribution.
“There are schools in our rural areas without A’level. The district quota approach means such schools should be elevated to Advanced Level status for the regions to benefit . Even as we talk of funding Science courses , same situation is that a number of rural schools do not have Labaratories needed to train scientists, these matters should be looked into,” she noted.
Catherine Lamwaka ,a member of parliament from Omoro district mentioned that the high digitisation of the process of application should be looked into in light of the poor natives from rural regions . At district quota level such people will have an opportunity but navigating the process may become a frustration.
“I request that the application level atleast is made manual for rural dwellers who might not have access to internet and gadgets. “
Meanwhile, this entire discussion was adopted as a way of forging a way forward for the seemingly collapsing 9 year old scheme.
Last week , the Higher Education Students Financing Board announced that the program would be suspended for the financial year 2023/2024 because of lack of funds.
Parliament deliberated yesterday that this could not be and members are insisting that the responsible bodies find the 6Billion needed for students .
By Shifrah Kwagala