The Influence of Higher Education Student Loans Scheme In Nurturing Graduates’ Future: The Case of Secondary School Teachers in Tanzania

Abstract

This paper examines the influence of higher education student’s loans scheme in
nurturing graduate’s future in Tanzania by taking the case of secondary school teachers.
Semi-structured interviews and a survey were used to collect data from 160 sampled
beneficiaries of higher education students’ loans scheme. The findings revealed that,
though HESLB has succeeded to support many students who graduated and enter into
the labour market either in public or private sectors, the potential return of such
investment to most of the graduates—such as the ability to own social and economic
assets like land, houses, capital as well as to establish sustainable families—has been
realized to a lesser extent. The expectation of investing in education is that, although
costly, it brings benefits in the future through spurred economic growth and increased
earnings that can provide space for future long-life choices, and better service delivery
in work places. However, the results are on the contrary as the majority falls into lowincome jobs, which consequently subject graduates to unmanageable and prolonged
HESLB debts recovery. This paper recommends the reduction of deduction rates of
HESLB’s loans, and other conditions that subsequently increases the amount size of
the loans. The government and the private sector, on the other hand, should look into
annual salary increments so as to enable graduates to repay HESLB’s loans, as well as
attain their life expectations adequately and sustainably.