Castries, St Lucia.
Members of the Grambling State University Alumni Association (St Lucia) have expressed shock at a statement made in the House of Assembly recently by Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Dr Kenny Anthony.
The Prime Minister Anthony last Tuesday told the House of Assembly that the East Caribbean Financial Holding (ECFH) subsidiary, Bank of St Lucia Ltd (BOSL) had written a letter to him concerning the over 240 students who attended the northern Louisiana University.
According to Anthony, the letter claimed that over 130 past students of Grambling State University are delinquent on their government guaranteed student loans from the BOSL.
Anthony said, he was of the opinion the students believed because their loans were guaranteed by the Government of St Lucia, it was a grant and they did not have to pay it back.
“This statement by our dear Prime Minister was very disheartening,” the Alumni Association said in a press statement.
The Alumni Association categorically denied that its members view the funds of taxpayers as grants.
“We are fully aware based on our loan agreements that we are required to repay the loans guaranteed by the GOSL on our behalf. What we do know for sure is that members have found it very difficult given St Lucia’s bleak economic climate and high unemployment rate to find gainful employment. Some of our members have returned to St Lucia to no jobs, some to old jobs with no room for growth and a few are only working part time,” the association said.
The association wrote to Anthony only a few months after the November 2011 general elections seeking a meeting with him to discuss the plight of its members, but to no avail.
“No response was ever given to our letter. Constant calls were made to his office only to be given the run around as to why they were unable to grant our request for an audience with him,” the association said.
After giving up on its attempts to see Anthony, the association then set its sights on the Minister of Education, Dr Robert Lewis, who granted members an opportunity to meet with him to discuss their issues. A number of proposals were produced at that meeting on the ways to reach an amicable arrangement on the way forward.
One of the proposals was for the GOSL and BOSL to sit down and review the rate of interest on the student loans in order to reduce the monthly repayments.
“We felt that this would assist members greatly as many of us were unable to adequately meet our financial obligations given the below par salaries many of us currently earned. The Minister promised to get back to our association after reporting to the Cabinet ,” the association said.
“To date, although we have not received any feedback from the minister for education, we have since learnt that the BOSL was not in agreement with any of the proposals that we presented to the minister. As an association, we have only learnt of the establishment of a cabinet sub-committee to review the concerns of the BOSL through the revelations made in the House of Assembly on Tuesday past,” the statement continued.
The Alumni Association said it has not been invited to meet with the cabinet sub-committee to discuss the subject of their mandate, even though it directly involves its members, which leaves the association confused since it has been willing for the last year to work on an agreement that would be satisfactory to all parties involved.
The association asked how a committee can chart “a way forward” without any kind of consultation with the very young people whose lives will be most affected by the recommendations that they decide to make.
“We, the former students of Grambling State University who have returned to St Lucia, have a great interest in arriving at an amicable resolution to this problem of delinquency on loan repayments between our members and the Bank of St Lucia. However, as stated very passionately in our meeting with the Minister for Education, and as we had also originally planned to bring to the attention of the Prime Minister, had we been granted the honour of an audience with him, we as an association would have presented the hard facts surrounding the issue of the non-payment of loans by our members,” the association said.
St Lucia’s current economic climate, high unemployment, low salaries offered to qualified young people in the private sector, and lack of room for promotion in the public sector has left members handicapped where maintaining a decent standard of living is concerned.
“In this modern day of social media, other recent graduates of the University who hear of the constant struggles that their fellow school mates are going through back home would be no more inclined to return to St Lucia. This is sad to note, but it is a cold hard fact. St Lucia through its draconian student loan policies is its own enemy; we are shooting ourselves in the foot where the development of young people is concerned,” the association said.
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