In a bid to ensure that the banks get their money back on the subsidised educational loans provided to students under the Central scheme, the government plans to digitise certification under various courses, these certificates will be marked mentioning about the outstanding loan amount.
Sources in the human resources development ministry stated that legislative measures were also being contemplated in tandem with digitisation to ensure that the employers deduct the loan EMI from the employees, who have taken loan, and pay it back to the banks.
“The marking of the certificates of students comes after demands by the bankers who had wanted a in-built system to make the recovery of the loan more easier,” sources added.
While the subsidised loan scheme has been implemented from this year the digitised certification is expected to be put into place by the next academic year. The government plans to bring in a National Academic Depository (NAD) Act 2010 which will establish and maintain in electronic format the database of all academic certificates issued by universities and central and state school boards, a step aimed at checking the practice of forged certification.
Explaining the digitised method of marking the certificates, sources stated, that each of the certificates, issued to any student who avails of the subsidised loan scheme, will be marked. “When an employer will employ a person who has secured such a loan he will immediately come to know about the outstanding amount. This will help ensure that the loan amount is paid back to the bank,” sources added.
The moratorium period on the interest on the loan will be the time taken by the student to get a job, or one year after finishing the course, whichever comes first.
The government, both Centre and state, will stand as guarantors on loans for the economically weaker sections (with parental income of less than 4.5 lakh per annum) at an interest rate of 4 per cent.
Under the scheme the government will subsidise the loans for students pursuing technical and professional courses from the academic year 2009-10.
Sources stated that the format for the scheme was finalised after a meeting between the HRD ministry and the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) last week. The interest amount on the moratorium period will be paid by the government.