Students' dreams marred by concerns about college funding, admissions

Published: 2004-06-24

DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania (CNS) -- Twenty-one-year-old Alex Tarazo said he has seen too many instances in which the world community responded slowly to a crisis, so he would like to study foreign policy. Gwantwa Cheyo, also 21, said she would like to study international law and work for the United Nations helping children. Tarazo and Cheyo are the elected student body leaders at Jesuit-run Loyola High School in Dar es Salaam. At the end of this year, their final one in a six-year program, they will take entrance examinations to see if they qualify to attend a university. The exams do not worry the two students; what concerns them is a change in Tanzanian law that insists someone must have a title to land or property to guarantee repayment of a government student loan. "It's a problem for those who have no parents," Cheyo said. Although both students' parents are living, neither has the property needed to guarantee a loan, and Cheyo and Tarazo told Catholic News Service they worry about how they will come up with money for tuition, room and board. "For most of the people, it's difficult to have these prerequisites," said Tarazo.

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