Kerala Introduces New Education Loan Repayment Scheme
The Government of Kerala made an announcement of an education loan repayment scheme to help students from economically backward families.
The Government of Kerala made an announcement of an education loan repayment scheme to help students from economically backward families. The State Chief Minister, Mr. Pinarayi Vijayan said that the scheme aims to provide relief to debt-ridden families who had taken educational loans for their children while making a statement under rule 300 in the Assembly. Highlighting more details about the scheme, Vijayan clarified that it is not a loan waiver scheme but a programme to help in repayment of the educational loan.
According to the proposed plan, support will be offered to only those individuals who had availed a loan upto Rs. 9 lakh and moreover, have an annual family income of Rs. 6 lakh. The loans will be repaid with the help pf the government who will pay almost 60% of the principal amount.
Vijayan said that the state would repay the entire principal amount in cases of students, who have died or have faced physical disability during the repayment period.
As revealed by the CM, this would have a retrospective effect from April of this year to loans up to Rs. 9 lakh. An approximate amount of Rs. 900 crore is determined by a state level bankers committee as a burden under this scheme.
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The new scheme was declared at the Old Assembly hall in the Secretariat complex to mark the 60th anniversary of the first sitting of the Legislative Assembly. The first sitting was held on 27 April 1957 after the Communist govt. was led by the late leader E. M. Sankaran Namboothripad.
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Highlights of the session:
V S Achuthanandan and Oommen Chandy, the former Chief Ministers and O Rajagopal, the lone BJP member were among those who spoke. The session also came to a decision to make Malayalam compulsory in all educational schools in the state. A bill was passed by Education Minister C Raveendranath for the same. The Malayalam Language Bill 2017 aims to make teaching the language Malayalam compulsory in all government, unaided, aided, self-financing educational institutions and also in ICSE, CBSE and other Boards.