The National Assembly has adopted a report from the Parliamentary Committee on Education, Science and Technology.

Among other recommendations, the report is proposing that government should review laws which mandate diploma students from accredited institutions not accessing loans from the Higher Education Students` Loans and Grants Board.

According to the Committee’s Chairperson Brainax Kaise, allowing diploma students to access the loan will address high rate of dropouts in tertiary institutions largely due to lack of tuition fees.

He said: “We had in our committee recommending that, we should go and revisit to act. We should amend the Act.
You know the pillar of our health sector it depends on the students who are coming from MCHS.”

Kaise has cited diploma students from Malawi College of Health Sciences (MCHS) who are excluded from accessing the loans that most of them are on the verge of withdrawing based on financial grounds.

“So if it is a student not having the access, they will leave the course, they will be withdrawn at the end of the day.
It is Malawian people in the rural areas in district hospitals who are going to suffer because the capacity of the hospitals will very much be affected,” Kaise said.

In 2015, government came up with a Loans and Grants Board Act 2 of 2015 which, among others, recommends students with degrees and advanced diploma to access the government loan.

However, the Act excluded all diploma students from various colleges and universities in Malawi.