A political party in PNG will pay of all students loans. THE People’s National Congress (PNC) party had promised to do away with higher education loan programme (Help), and write off loans already taken by students, if it forms the next government.
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| PNC vows to pay off student loans |
Party leader Peter O’Neill said: “We will do away with the system (Help) in September and write off all the student loans.
“We don’t have money to pay for school fees in the first place. So how can students repay those loans?”
He told students who had taken out loans not to worry about repaying them.
“We will write it off,” he said.
Instead, O’Neill said his party would reintroduce the national scholarship (Natscol) programme.
“We will reintroduce the national scholarship which (had) existed for 40 years,” he said.
“We must pay the fees of students attending university, technical, teachers and nursing colleges.”
He said education should be the top priority.
“Almost 60 per cent of our population are youthful – below 25 years,” he said.
O’Neill said his government would recruit young men and women next year to join the police force and army – increasing the numbers for national service.
“It is not new. They did that in the 1960s and 70s,” he said.
“Most of our old people had gone into national service with Australian government. But it was stopped when we had independence.
“Now that our population has increased, the government must intervene to educate, and up-skill our young population.”
O’Neill was campaigning in Lae on Saturday.
He described his presence in Lae with the 10 candidates for the province’s 11 seats as “historic”.
“In respect to late Sam Basil, we haven’t put up a candidate in Bulolo.”
The National / Study in PNG
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