Vidya Poshak - Education Loan Awareness & Advocacy Program
Vidya Poshak’s
Education Loan Awareness and Advocacy Program (ELAAP)
Final Progress Report
In September 2012, Vidya Poshak set out to create awareness
about education loans within the student community in order to enable all
deserving students to pursue their dream education after 12th grade.
The ELAAP project was executed in three phases. The fourth
phase is an on-going activity that will continue beyond the project end date of
31st Aug 2013.
Phase One :First
one was to create awareness about the IBA Model Education Loan Scheme amongst
students in our area of operations. We reached out to over 10,000 students during
this phase.
Phase Two :The
second phase was the counselling phase to guide the students who were applying
for a professional course and needed help to understand the loan scheme. We
reached 1638 students seeking admission to Professional Education at 6 out of
12 centres where such admissions were taking place.
Phase Three:This
was the Support Phase in which the Vidya Poshak team provided support during
the actual loan application process. ELAAP team provided guidance on the phone
and through our network of trained facilitators. We also had direct
intervention with banks that had refused loans on incorrect basis. Vidya Poshak
collaborated with 2 major nationalised banks, State Bank of India and Canara
Bank to help meritorious students get loans. We were able to support nearly
1500 students in this phase.
On-going Activity
:In order to provide relevant information, an ELAAP page was created on
Facebook. This is a continuing activity that will go on beyond the stated
project end date. We are providing personal and telephonic assistance to needy
students even after 1st September, after the project formally ended.
In addition to the 10,000 students reached in the earlier reporting
period, we counselled over 3000 students in this period by phone and at the CET
centres. We have identified facilitators across north Karnataka and have
conducted facilitator trainings. Our facilitators continue to provide support
to needy students.
Detailed
Report
Detailed Activity report
|
Sl. No
|
Month
|
Activity Name
|
Details
|
|
1.
|
Sept, Oct 2012
|
Initial preparation of documents.
|
The first two months of the project were spent in preparing the
ground for launch of ELAAP. The co-ordinator prepared flyers and handbooks
for students.
|
|
2.
|
Nov 2012
|
ELAAP sessions commenced
|
ELAAP sessions began with one at Sirsi and in the first trip itself,
we were able to reach over 600 students. This gave a tremendous boost to the
confidence of the team.
|
|
3.
|
Dec 2012
|
ELAAP Sessions conducted in more than 15 colleges
|
Dec 2012 saw a whirlwind tour of over 15 colleges and we addressed
nearly 2500 students during this month alone.
|
|
4.
|
Jan, Feb and Mar 2013
|
Some more colleges and areas covered with education loan awareness.
ELAAP Facebook page created
|
We were able to go to the farthest corners of Karnataka and conduct
sessions at Gulberga, Raichur, Gangavati, Ankola etc.
An exclusive page was created in Facebook for ELAAP updates.
|
|
5.
|
April 2013
|
Facilitator Identification and Radio program
|
We identified facilitators for ELAAP in all the areas where Vidya
Poshak has been operational.
We also broadcast a program on All India Radio about education loan
facility and received nearly 70 calls in one day.
|
|
6.
|
May 2013
|
Training of facilitators
|
We started by training facilitators at Dharwad co-ordinating office
and then extended it to Gadag, Haveri and Bijapur regions. Trainings were
conducted in person and in some cases by phone.
|
|
7.
|
June 2013
|
Counselling students
|
12th grade students had completed the competitive exams
and their results were out. VP team helped address their queries about
education loan.
|
|
8.
|
July 2013
|
Counselling at Admission Centres
|
Vidya Poshak setup 6 helpdesks at the admission centres to guide
students getting admitted into professional courses. We helped 1638 students
during this one month.
|
|
9.
|
Aug 2013
|
Working with banks
|
We worked with State Bank of India and Canara Bank, two prominent
banks in this region to provide help to students get education loan. We were
able to get about 150 education loans in this period alone.
|
|
10.
|
Sept 2013 onwards
|
On-going activity
|
Vidya Poshak continues to provide support through emails, phone and
in-person guidance about education loan to students.
|
1.
Created awareness in over 10,000 students across
15 districts in over 120 colleges directly and through the VP volunteer
network.
2.
Broadcast of Education Loan awareness program by
All India Radio (AIR), Dharwad Station. This program reached the interior areas
of north Karnataka.
3.
Provided counselling to 1638 students aspiring
for professional education at admission centres.
4.
Provided telephonic and in-person help to over
1500 students to get education loan.
5.
Helped students to get education loan by directly
interacting with Chairpersons of a few banks.
6.
Worked with two major banks, State Bank of India
and Canara Bank to provide loans to over 200 students.
7. Trained
22 facilitators across 6 districts.
ELAAP Impact
1. More
than 10,000 students became aware of the IBA Model Education Loan scheme
through our awareness campaign.
2. About
2000 students were counselled in person at Document Verification centers.
3. More
than a 1500 students were helped by Telephone, email and in-person guidance to
get the education loan.
4.
The Facebook page for ELAAP has reached out to
numerous students and provided guidance.
5.
Bank officials are aware of Vidya Poshak
campaign and reach out to us for clarifications.
Plan for future
1. VP
intends to continue support for students
by telephone , email as well as through our facilitator network.
2.
VP has also created
a Facebook page that enables the students to handle some frequently asked
question.
3.
The facilitator network will continue to provide
guidance to students in their locality.
Challenges during the project
1.
One of the major challenges in the project was
the sheer distribution of students across a large geography. We managed this
challenge to a great extent by using our volunteer network
2.
Lack of awareness of education loans in the
interior areas. We handled this by creating awareness through personal visits
and volunteer network. In addition to that the radio programme helped reach
several more students.
3.
Lack of awareness in colleges was another
challenge. Quite a few colleges were not interested in providing time for our
ELAAP programs in their campus. Of course, there were some that understood the
significance of our program and extended great help.
Lessons learnt
1.
There is a very large population of students and
parents that need help to understand features and procedures of Education Loan.
Excepting a few parents in the cities, no one questions wrong or misleading
information given by authorities. Continuing ELAAP for at least one possibly 2
years will create this awareness.
2.
Even some bankers are not aware of the entire
scheme or have some misinformation about some parts of it.
3.
When we started to approach the colleges during
Nov – Dec, we were told that most classes were over or students were already
engaged in preparation of their exams. So the lesson in this was we need to
approach colleges much before Nov.
4.
The infrastructure requirement is minimal for
operating this. However the manpower needed is a long term investment. Training
the co-ordinator/s and facilitators will payoff only if the project continues
through 2nd or 3rd year.
Case Studies
1.
Interest Subsidy at regional rural bank.
KiranChougula had joined an engineering
course and availed education loan. According to Central Scheme for Interest
Subsidy, he was eligible for interest subsidy but the branch manager refused to
process it. Our volunteer, Appasaheb, followed up with the Chairman of the bank
and ensured that Kiran got the interest subsidy that he was entitled to. This incident confirmed that Rural Regional
banks also adhered to the IBA model education loan scheme.
2. Help
with interest paymentat Hegde, Kumta.
A meritorious student, Chetana Patgar, from
a small town, Hegde in Uttara Kannada district, had secured admission in one of
the finest engineering colleges at Mysore. She applied for education loan at
Syndicate Bank in her town. The branch manager asked that interest repayment
must start in the first year itself. The IBA education loan scheme provides for
simple interest to be accumulated till completion of education and a year
afterwards. Chetana had attended one of our sessions and knew about the
features. She called our helpline and
asked for help. We wrote to the Chairman of Syndicate bank and sought
clarifications on the issue faced by Chetana. When no response was forthcoming
for 4-5 days, we sent a note to Deputy Governors, RBI with copy to Chairman of
Syndicate bank.
Some Photos from our Counselling
at admission centres for Professional Courses.
