'No Increase in Students Loan'

Dr. Ibn Chambas, the Deputy Minister of Education in charge of tertiary education, has said that demand by the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) for an increase in the student loan is unrealistic.

Speaking on a local radio station last Thursday, Dr. Chambas said that if the demands were met, it would mean that the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), the main financiers of the loan scheme, would have to cough out some 150 billion cedis, an amount that the Deputy Minister said is not feasible.

NUGS had earlier in the week held a highly charged press conference at the University of Ghana at which it called on the scandal-hit SSNIT to increase the student loan from ?1m to ?2.5 million annually "to reflect the economic realities of the times". In a related development, tension is steadily mounting at the Legon campus over the delay in the payment of this semester's loan instalment.

A section of the section of the students have called for the head of the SRC president who they believe has not done enough to secure early release of the loans this semester. Indications are that there is an increasing support among the student population for an 'aluta' - demonstration, to press home their demands.

Other students who spoke to The Independent under conditions of anonymity were however against any line of action that they said "could lead to the disruption of the academic calendar".