The Student Revolving Loan Fund (SRLF) is to be upgraded and expanded.
Minister of Training and Tertiary Education Sandra Husbands, who is also Acting Minister of Educational Transformation, made the disclosure yesterday in the House of Assembly while introducing the Student Revolving Loan Fund Bill, 2025.
The Bill provides for the establishment of a board to administer the SRLF.
Husbands announced the SRLF will shortly be launching two new loan funds, one a professional and training loan designed for seniors who want to study while continuing to be employed, and the other for back-to-school loans “to allow parents who are challenged” to be able to outfit their children for their return to school in the September term.
The SRLF was established in 1977 under the Student Revolving Loan Fund Act, to provide Barbadians with the wherewithal to pursue educational dreams whether or not their family had assets.
Husbands said the fund had over the years “moved away from providing loan funding for some of the traditional areas of study and now includes things like culture and the creative sector”.
The loan limit was also moved from the original $20 000, to today’s $125 000.
“The Ministry of Training and Education’s mandate is to prepare and lead a transition programme to move Barbadian labour to the more lucrative and sustainable jobs and to train Barbadian citizens to global levels, hence the plans for the acceleration of tertiary education,” the Member of Parliament for St James South said.
She noted the SRLF had evolved over 48 years, to the extent that in recent times “hundreds” of Barbadians were able to acquire loans to support their cybersecurity and artificial intelligence training to equip them for the IT revolution.
Husbands said the COVID-19 pandemic also forced a new area of lending by the fund, with the shift to online learning, necessitating the introduction of a digital transformation loan to allow families to purchase the equipment needed for studying.
“Because we have an ageing population and not a sufficient number of young people coming through to swell the labour force, Barbados has to find a way to take seniors who are currently nearing their work life and those who have already ended their work life, to see how they can be reskilled and upskilled so that they can find meaningful employment, or start a small business if they so desire, to be able to make income to stretch the pension dollars.”
While suggesting that “everyone will have to engage in continuous learning in order to be relevant in a constantly changing world”, Husbands advised this was “going to be critical for the Civil Service who will have to do so as well”.
Husbands revealed the fund approved more than 15 000 loans at a value of about $400 million, during its 48 years of operation. She also reported a significant improvement in the delinquency rate which had dropped from as high as 90 per cent in the late 1980s, to 11 per cent as of March 31.
“The Ministry of Training and Education’s mandate is to prepare and lead a transition programme to move Barbadian labour to the more lucrative and sustainable jobs and to train Barbadian citizens to global levels, hence the plans for the acceleration of tertiary education,” Husbands said.
