Preferential loans accompany poor students

(Baonghean) - The three sisters of Ms. Vi Thi Kim Lien, residing in block 11, Quy Hop town, lost their parents at a young age. When Lien's younger brother passed the entrance exam to the music department of Nghe An Pedagogical College, she was worried that she would not be able to continue to support her brother to finish college. Luckily, there was a policy of the Party and State for poor students with difficult circumstances to borrow preferential loans from the Social Policy Bank to cover their studies. Implementing this policy, she boldly completed the procedures to borrow 800,000 VND/month. Although the amount was small, it helped her cover her brother's education. After 3 years, her brother graduated with a good grade and was accepted to work at Chau Loc Primary School. Trying to save, after a few years, she paid back the debt of 8 million VND to the bank as committed.

After worrying about her younger sibling's studies and finding a stable job, she was determined to fulfill her dream and passed the entrance exam to Nghe An College of Culture and Arts. She continued to apply and was approved for a preferential loan of 21.3 million VND from the Social Policy Bank to go to school. The above amount had to be used for studying expenses: buying a guitar for 14 million VND, materials, extra classes, food and accommodation (the accommodation alone was 300,000 VND per month, taking up almost all of the loan amount). But she tried to be frugal, after 3 years of studying, she graduated, and is now a teacher at Chau Cuong Secondary School. The two sisters have stable jobs, and are pooling and saving their monthly salaries to raise their youngest sibling and gradually pay off the bank debt. She emotionally said: "If there were no preferential policies from the Party and the State, who knows what would happen to us, orphans? I hope this policy will continue to accompany poor students in difficult circumstances like us."

Credit group goes to poor commune Chieu Luu, Ky Son district to disburse capital

Mr. Bui Xuan Giap in village 7, Thanh My commune, Thanh Chuong district is a war invalid. He and his wife raise 6 children, the family's income mainly depends on agricultural production, the economy is very difficult. However, all 5 children are good students, passed the university entrance exams. The family struggled to pay for their children's education, sometimes having to borrow money. Right at that difficult time, the family received news that the State had a policy to lend money to poor students to go to school. The family was evaluated by the Savings and Loan Group of Group 8, village 7 and was lent 83.2 million VND by the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies to support their children's education. Currently, Mr. Giap's 3 children have graduated from university, have stable jobs and from 2013, the children will have income and gradually pay off the debt to the bank. He emotionally said: "From the bottom of my heart, I sincerely thank the Party, the State, the Government, especially the Bank for Social Policies, which is truly a solid and reliable address for poor households and policy households like us."

Hung Linh, a commune along the Lam River dike, Hung Nguyen district, has 13 hamlets with 1,535 households and 7,358 people. With a tradition of studiousness, every year there is a large number of students studying at professional and vocational schools across the country. Therefore, the need to borrow capital to serve children's education is very high and extremely necessary. Thanks to Decision No. 157/2007/QD-TTg of the Government on "credit for students" coming into life, it has contributed to sharing the burden on poor households, creating conditions for students to go to school. The outstanding debt of the student loan program for children of Hung Linh commune at the district's Social Policy Bank in 2007 was only 125 million VND (30 students). After 5 years, the outstanding debt at the Social Policy Bank has increased significantly: By September 2012, the outstanding debt of the student loan program reached 5,568 million VND, accounting for 42.8% of the total outstanding debt of the commune, with 1,721 students receiving loans; there is no overdue debt.

In Dien Chau, Chairman of the District People's Committee Nguyen Ngoc Vo said: Dien Chau has more than 2,000 students studying at universities, colleges, vocational high schools and vocational schools nationwide every year. A large number of them are children from families with difficult economic circumstances. Decision 157 of the Prime Minister is like a lifeline for many families and students. As of September 30, 2012, the total outstanding loans for students reached 313,347 million VND, accounting for 63.81% of the total outstanding loans in the whole district. This is truly a popular policy, bringing practical economic and social efficiency, a "lifeline" for the majority of economically disadvantaged households when realizing the dream of "changing the lives" of their children and grandchildren.

Thoroughly implementing the spirit of "not letting any student with difficult circumstances drop out of school due to lack of money to pay tuition", despite the large area, large target group and demand for loans, Nghe An Social Policy Bank has determined to overcome difficulties to bring capital to the people in a timely manner, bringing learning opportunities to hundreds of thousands of poor students. After more than 5 years of implementation, the program has quickly come into life, actively contributing to the implementation of the Party and Government's policies on promoting and developing education, ensuring social security.

Through inspections, the Social Policy Bank, Nghe An Branch, has been highly appreciated for its sense of responsibility with many measures to consolidate and improve the quality of operations of savings and loan groups, of entrusted activities with socio-political organizations at all levels, mobile transaction groups and transaction points at communes. Currently, with a network of 8,330 savings and loan groups covering all villages and hamlets in the whole province, along with 478/480 transaction points at communes of the Social Policy Bank, these are important factors that determine the results of the program implementation in the past 5 years.

Talking about the difficulties, Director of the Social Policy Bank, Nghe An Branch, Le Xuan Ty, said: The capital source to implement the Program is still passive, completely dependent on the capital transferred from the Central Government, so sometimes and in some places it cannot meet the borrowing needs of the people in a timely manner, causing negative public sentiment. In addition, the disbursement is highly seasonal, short-term, often at the beginning of the school year and the beginning of the semester in conditions of limited facilities and human resources, causing considerable pressure on the staff of the Social Policy Bank.

In Nghe An, with the current growth rate, about 660 billion VND is needed annually for disbursement, and the loan turnover in 5 years is estimated at about 3,300 billion VND. Therefore, in the coming time, it is necessary to continue to have the attention and create more favorable conditions from all levels, sectors and localities to effectively implement the annual student credit program...

The total outstanding loan balance for students of Nghe An Social Policy Bank up to September 30, 2012 was 2,736 billion VND, with 159,000 students belonging to 122,300 households borrowing capital, accounting for 8.1% of the total outstanding loan balance of the program nationwide (Nghe An is the province with the highest outstanding loan balance of the student program nationwide). Completing 99.57% of the capital plan announced by the Central Government. Of which, the target group for poor households is 841 billion VND with 49,373 students with outstanding loans belonging to 38,066 households, accounting for 30.74% of the total outstanding loan balance and 31.10% of the total number of households borrowing capital; The target group for near-poor households is 1,414 billion VND with 80,042 students, belonging to 60,962 households, accounting for 51.69% of the total outstanding loan balance and 49.81% of the total number of households borrowing capital. The target is households facing financial difficulties due to 5 reasons (accidents, natural disasters, illnesses, fires, epidemics) of 480 billion VND with 29,647 students, belonging to 23,337 households, accounting for 17.56% of total outstanding debt and 19.07% of total borrowing households. Although the outstanding debt is large, overdue debt only accounts for 0.05% of total outstanding debt.

Minh Thu