St Catherine students dominate in SLB borrowing

Data from the Students Loan Bureau (SLB) have shown that more than two thirds of the loans disbursed by the agency go to students from only five of the 14 parishes.

In its annual report tabled in parliament yesterday, the SLB said that for the 2011/2012 academic year 67.9 per cent of the approved applications were from individuals from Kingston and St. Andrew, St. Catherine, Clarendon and Manchester.

And the data shows that the overwhelming majority of approved applications were from St. Catherine.

That parish accounted for 23.9 per cent of approved applications, while Kingston and St. Andrew together accounted for 24.8 per cent, Clarendon for 10.6 per cent and Manchester 8.6 per cent.

The SLB’s report says traditionally, the lowest demand for its services has been from the parishes of Hanover, Trelawny, Portland, St. Thomas and St. Mary.

It says this trend continued over the review period, though it did not give any reason for the low number of applications from those parishes.

The SLB says based on the trend observed, it has been placing greater focus on these areas through its Public Education campaign.

In the meantime, female applicants continued to outnumber male applicants with 71.6 per cent of loans approved being from females.

The SLB says 12,017 applications were approved for the 2011/2012 academic year.

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