Loans for higher education on a rise
30 Jan, 2014Reply to an application filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act has brought out interesting facts about the way the students of different regions of the country behave. The data shows that the students in the south Indian states get the maximum number of higher-education loans from public-sector banks. The data obtained from the Ministry of Finance further shows that the students in the Northeast region lag in availing education loans.
The variation in the number of students opting for education loans has been attributed to:
1. Higher awareness about the government’s education loan scheme in the south, and
2. Heavy concentration of higher-education and professional institutions in the southern states. The figures of the southern region are improved by the influx of large number of outside students who takeloans from local banks.
3. Banks are “conservative” about extending education loans in some regions fearing poor recovery.
The figures obtained from the MoF show that as on September 30, 2013 the total outstanding education loans given out by public-sector banks was around Rs 54,000 crore. Tamil Nadu leads the states and accounts for nine lakh among the 26 lakh students who have secured education loans.