The Ministry of Education denied yesterday that the student loan default ratio has surpassed 12 percent and that the amount of overdue student loans has risen to a record high NT$4.41 billion as reported by the local Chinese-language China Times yesterday.
"I don't know where the daily got its figures from," said Hou Chou-fei, head of the ministry's Department of Higher Education, noting that the actual student loan default ratio currently stands at under 3 percent.
Speaking at a press conference held to respond to the report, Hou said that no banks or lending institutions have applied for repayment of any overdue student loans by the Small and Medium Business Credit Guarantee Fund which serves as guarantor for student loans at the request of the government.
"There is no need to be concerned as the ministry has the student loan situation completely under control," he said.
According to the China Times report, over 900,000 students have received student loans amounting to over NT$150 billion in total, with the loan default ratio reaching 12.11 percent.
He said that the actual number of students who have received loans is closer to 800,000 and that the loan default ratio stands at only 2.44 percent.
He further said that the ministry has a mechanism in place for recovering overdue student loans and that the success rate for recovering loans overdue for less than one year is quite high.
Source:-http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/2008/02/19/143503/MOE-denies.htm |
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