Earlier yesterday the Ministry of education issued new guidelines on how students will be able to access loans to finance their university education. The big news of the day was that the financial management of the loan scheme is going to be switched from the Student Financing Agency of Rwanda (SFAR) to Rwanda Development Bank (BRD).

The former organisation, which has in the past handled all aspects of the loan scheme, will now be restricted to managing course applications and intake.

The ideal for any loan scheme would be to ensure that the biggest number of deserving students (deserving both by merit and by need) will have access to a financing plan that is most beneficial to them as individuals and the country as a whole.

Hopefully this division of roles, where each body is left to handle only those areas in which they have expertise, will result in a smoother, more equitable loan allocation.

What matters most is that in the end we should minimise the cases of brilliant students failing to acquire an education because they could not afford it. Anything that helps to streamline the system and ensure that the chances of this happening are as low as possible is a win for the country and a triumph of the education sector.

education@newtimes.co.rw