Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung (潘文忠) yesterday said that the interest rates for student loans are to be lowered from 0.4 to 0.2 percent starting next month.
Pan said the lower interest rates would cut between NT$500 and NT$2,000 from the annual repayments required from students and the repayment period would also be extended, thereby alleviating the financial burden on graduates who have just begun working, and often face limited employment opportunities and lower salaries.
This policy would benefit about 430,000 students, he said.
The ministry said the interest rate for families with annual household incomes of between NT$1.14 million and NT$1.2 million (US$35,549 and US$37,420) has been lowered from 0.81 to 0.61 percent, while the rates for households earning more than NT$1.2 million have been reduced from 1.62 percent to 1.22 percent.
It added that under its student loan repayment policy, students from disadvantaged families who apply for deferred loan repayments do not have to pay interest, while the 0.5 percent interest required from families who applied for both deferred repayment and extended repayment periods has been covered by the ministry.
In related news, Pan said that at a meeting on Tuesday he urged local education department heads to redouble their efforts to work toward an examination-free high school admission system.
Pan said he told officials to encourage schools whose recruitment processes have been smooth after they introduce examination-free programs to increase the slots they allocate for students interested in such programs.
The minister said he reminded officials of a planned 0.5 percent increase in the ministry’s budget — which it is to propose later this year — aimed at bridging a perceived gap in the qualities of ordinary high schools and vocational high schools.
Reducing the gap has been viewed as an essential requirement for full implementation of an examination-free high school admission system.
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