Study Loans Help Thai Students Lead Better Lives

By Jamaluddin Muhammad BANGKOK (Thailand), May 2 (Bernama) -- Thitikorn Pongpan, 31, is sure that he would not have been able to complete his four-year engineering degree at King Mongkut Institute of Technology here in 2001 if there was no study loan as he comes from a very poor family. "With the degree I have obtained, I am able to change my life and that of my family now, and that has improved our standard of living," he said. Thitikorn took a US$7,798.79 (240,000 baht) loan and managed to repay the loan at 4,000 baht a month. "I am happy to have been able to pay back because I can afford it now and it is my responsibility to repay the loan after the government had helped me a lot when I really needed the money then," he said. Similarly, Ponsiri Kamwang, 31, doubted that she would have had a better future now if she had not taken up a study loan from upper secondary school right up to degree level at Mahasarakarm University in Issan. "I took a total of 270,000 baht for my study loan and I would say that it was worth the investment (for me to study) and repay the loan," said Ponsiri who works as a journalist with a local language newspaper. Meanwhile, the Thai government plans to re-introduce the Income Contingent Loan (ICL) to replace the current Student Loan Fund (SLF) aimed at easing the financial burden of university students. Education Minister Suchart Thada-Thamrongvech said that under ICL, borrowers could choose either a three-year grace period after graduation or start repaying when their monthly salaries reach 16,000 baht. The Education Ministry has earmarked 6.2 billion baht for ICL, which covers education fees, living expenses and costs such as laboratory fees. Besides providing scholarships for top achievers, Suchart said, ICL aimed to help poor students with good results to pursue tertiary education. One of the loan conditions is that their parents’ annual income should not be more than 300,000 baht. Under the current SLF, students whose parents’ annual income is not more than 200,000 baht can be eligible for the loan, and repayment takes place three years after graduation. SLF provides loans of about 76,000 baht per year for arts degree students, 96,000 baht for science students, with a repayment period of 13 years. Suchart said the existing SLF would continue to cater for the loan needs of upper secondary students. SLF has given out loans amounting 357 billion baht to 3.7 million students since 1996. About 2.4 million borrowers are in deals to repay the debts and 1.8 million borrowers or 75 per cent have paid off their debts. Under the Thai study loan scheme, there is no conversion of loans into scholarships even if borrowers excel in their studies in the 140 public and private universities. ICL was introduced by the Thaksin Shinawatra government and gave loans to students in the 2006 academic year but the scheme was short-lived after he was ousted in a coup. (US$1 = 30.77 baht) --BERNAMA