Girls, transgenders and specially-abled students of Bihar who are willing to pursue higher education can now get education loan up to Rs. 4 lakh at just 1% interest rate. The students can avail this loan under the Students Credit Card Scheme (SSC). Chief Minister Nitish Kumar inaugurated the State Education Finance Corporation so that the government could speed up the process of SCC scheme. As per the scheme, students will only pay interest at the rate of 4% for the education loans acquired by them.
Also Read: MHRD to Soon Get an Innovation Cell: Prakash Javadekar
Addressing the audience at Samvad auditorium in Patna, Nitish stated that the government is already working on the SSC scheme so that the loan could be distributed to 12th pass students. The step has been taken because commercial bank gives preference to students pursuing technical education in terms of providing education loans.
However, as per the SSC scheme , the loan will be provided to even those students who are willing to pursue general education after passing Class 12 exams . The main aim of the scheme is to make education loan available to students who seek general education, polytechnic institutions and just not to students from a technical education background.
Also Read: MHRD Approves ‘Study in India’ to Attract International Students
He further said that the banks were taking a lot of time in sanctioning loans under the SSC scheme even after fulfilling all the norms.The banks approved a loan of around 19,000 applications. However, it was only sanctioned to 12,050 students. The main aim of the SSC scheme is to improve state’s gross enrolment ratio-GER in higher education.