Govt to promote its education proposals

Press, 2 June 1989, Page 4

Govt to promote its education proposals

By

JENNY LONG

The Government is planning a media campaign to counter the adverse publicity about its tertiary education proposals.

Education sources said that the Government, irked by the leaking of draft reports on student loans, planned to launch an intensive campaign in about two weeks.

The campaign would include newspaper and radio publicity and leaflets to schools. Famous New Zealanders would be asked to endorse the reforms.

dse of the most contro-

versial of the Government’s tertiary education plans is the increase in fees for students, to about $lBOO a year. Students who could not pay each year would be able to take out a Governmentguaranteed loan.

The student loans working group, appointed by the Government, is now recommending that people with loans would be required to begin repayments once they were earning $19,000 a year. This is tougher than the previously proposed figure of $25,000. A minimum repayment rate of 5 per cent is

proposed, increased from an earlier proposal of a maximum of 3 per cent. Other proposals include the Government interest subsidy on the loan lasting only 10 years before a commercial rate would apply, or the loan would be written off. The Government has hoped that the banks would provide the student loans, backed by a Government guarantee. The news this week that the Bankers’ Association is likely to refuse to take part in the scheme is a blow for the Government, which would then have td fully fund the scheme.