'SLB biased against nurses'
Published:Sunday | February 9, 2014 | 12:00 AM
NURSING STUDENTS who apply for loans at the state-run Student's Loan Bureau (SLB) are being denied because of fear that their salaries after graduation will be unable to meet the loan repayment.
Last Friday, Ruel Reid, opposition senator, told the Upper House that from the vantage point of the appeals committee of the SLB, on which he sat in the past, it was felt that nurses would find it easier to migrate than repay their loans.
"The average costs of the bachelor's programme for the registered nurse range in the university between $360,000 and $500,000 per year. So for a four-year nurses programme you are talking about $2 million," Reid commented.
"The starting salary of a nurse is less than $50,000 per month, and when we did the calculation, the Students' Loan Bureau had a difficulty in granting loans to these nurse applicants because it was of the view that if they remained in Jamaica they would not be able to pay back the loan," Reid said.
In 2012, the SLB said teachers head the list of its loan portfolio with 5,000 loans, while nurses number 1,900, and students who pursue business administration collectively account for at least 50 per cent of its portfolio.
"It pains my heart because there are a lot of people who want to go into nursing who can't go into nursing because they can't afford it," Reid added.
He suggested that a facility which allows teachers to be refunded 50 per cent of the cost to pursue professional upgrade should be extended to nurses likewise.
The SLB's rate of delinquency now stands at approximately 30 per cent, with 12,000 accounts valued at approximately $2 billion.