JAN 15 — There is no doubt that everyone has the right to education but that does not mean it comes without a cost.
There has been much debate on the state of the National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) recently as the defaulters’ list in getting longer by the year..
It is sad that some defaulters have the cheek to actually blame PTPTN for not having enough compassion in collecting the dues. This is just unacceptable.
Morally, all borrowers from the PTPTN have the obligation to pay up upon completing their education in higher institutions, be it public or private.
The conditions set forth when they took the loans were agreed upon and crying foul later down the road indicates an irresponsible attitude of those that have actually benefitted tremendously in achieving their academic goals.
PTPTN has bent to the point of breaking in giving too much allowances to defaulters in postponing their payments.
While a whopping RM56.4 billion has been given out as loans since 1997, only RM8 billion has been retrieved, with around 2.5 million borrowers according to reports.
The disparity is just too wide and any fund that sees such deficit will eventually collapse if more external financial aid is not injected.
PTPTN is basically public funded and it is only right and logical that the fund revolves on its own over time. But this is not the case after nearly 20 years in operation.
Defaulters have argued that they lack the financial means to pay as they have other obligations like car, housing loans and other expenses to pay for upon graduation. But then this only proves that they lack financial skills in planning their incomes.
Fair enough if one is jobless and asks for deferment but those working are merely making lame excuses in either postponing their dues, or indeed never really have the intention to pay up in the first place.
It is a shame that these young graduates can actually shop, dine and spend on movie tickets every month but whine like spoilt brats to even dish out a mere RM50 monthly in installment to pay off their PTPTN loans.
And when they are chased for payment or ‘blacklisted’ they tend to blame the whole world and paint PTPTN evil and stone-hearted.
Defaulters conveniently choose to forget that there are others too that depended on PTPTN to further their studies and due to the sheer number of defaulters, PTPTN is now mulling to reduce the amount given to new borrowers.
In my view, PTPTN should stop being too lenient towards the hardcore defaulters, especially those that have jobs or have business of their own.
Having given them too much leeway has brought no advantage to PTPTN but on the contrary will deprive some well deserving student a full loan to pursue his or her dream in life.
For once, defaulters should imagine if the education loan was from a commercial bank and not PTPTN per se.
They would have been in deep trouble by now. Not only blacklisted by all financial institutions but most likely they would have been made bankrupt before they can even start their lives.
It all boils down to the ‘tidak apa’ attitude of defaulters in thinking that it is now someone else’s problem since they have already accomplished their education goal.
Last but not least, a word of advice to PTPTN. If the fund keeps on being too soft towards defaulters, the likelihood of more borrowers going rogue is extremely high and PTPTN will in the very near future not be able to justify its existence to the tax payer.
It will be wiser for the government to funnel more money directly into higher education institutions to subsidise the various tuition fees rather than sustain PTPTN that is being taken for a ride by defaulters.
