21 Mar 2013

Kiribati president gives details for student loan offer

3:27 pm on 21 March 2013

The President of Kiribati, Anote Tong, says tertiary students should take out a loan to fund their studies, if they believe they can make use of the public funds.

This comes after about 200 students who missed out on scholarships wrote to the President, asking that the government offer more scholarships or start a student loan scheme.

Mr Tong says the government has allocated funds for a student loan scheme to the Ministry of Education, which will transfer the money to the Development Bank of Kiribati to handle the loan applications.

He says students will not need to pay the money back if they pass their courses.