Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda yesterday said the Government has no intention of dropping the higher education cost sharing policy.
Winding up the 13th sitting of the National Assembly in Dodoma, Mr Pinda said the policy was not peculiar to Tanzania, arguing that it had succeeded in many other countries.
Mr Pinda restated the Government's position as university student leaders were resolving to stage protests from Monday to demand 100 per cent educational loans.
Student leaders at the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) and its affiliate College of Education (Duce) told reporters they would mount sustained protests to force the Government to scrap cost sharing system.
On the UDSM campus at Ubungo, the student parliament that was earlier sharply divided over the protest closed ranks and voted for an indefinite strike from next week.
In Dodoma, Mr Pinda said the Government established the Higher Education Student Loans Board (HESLB) to ensure that a majority of poor students benefit.
He said that through cost sharing, more students, mainly from poor families, would be able to pay for higher education.
The Government, he said, was deeply concerned about the growing culture of strikes, demonstration and other protests.
He said the trend should be discouraged as it could slow down and hurt innocent people.
Mr Pinda said the student loans were meant to ensure all Tanzanians receive equal opportunities for university education.
He said the HESLB Act No.9 of 2004 was clear on the conditions, procedures on issuance of loans, and measures to be taken for their recovery.
"It is just not right that the son of the Prime Minister, or the Speaker of the National Assembly, an MP or big businessman should access the loans because it is obvious that these can afford to pay for their children's higher education.
Let only the poor benefit from this," he said.
Mr Pinda said cost sharing was not confined to higher education institutions, as it also operates in primary education.
The Government did not charge interest on the students' loans, he said. Tanzania, he said, offered loans to more students than both Kenya and Uganda put together every year.
While Tanzania gave loans to about 60,000 of the 80,000 students enrolled, only 10,000 students in Kenya out of 120,000 get the loans, and only 4,000 students in Uganda out of 30,000, the premier said.
The students pushing for the scrapping of cost sharing claim their parents are poor and cannot meet their fee demands.
Endorsing protests set for Monday, Daruso officials said their mass action would be peaceful. They exonerated the various university administrations from blame and apologised for a violent incident at UDSM on Thursday.
Two students were injured when their colleagues calling for a countrywide strike flushed them out lecture rooms.
They said that the law and policies on allocation of loans contravene human rights and oppresses the poor, they said.
At another meeting at DUCE, the students said they had scheduled a meeting with the minister for Education and Vocational Training, Prof Jumanne Maghembe, to attempt to reach an agreement before Monday.
DUCE students' organisation president Ambege Uswege said they had suspended their protests that started on Wednesday to allow the meeting with Prof Maghembe.
Countrywide protests might continue, depending on how the minister responds to their demands, he said.
"If the government agrees to implement our demands we shall stop the strike but if they will not we will continue on Tuesday," said Mr Uswege.
Mr Pastory Prudence, the DUCE student government prime minister, asked the Government to take their complaints seriously.
Reported by Damas Kanyabwoya, Dodoma and Noela Oyugah, Irene Mchomvu and Mwanamkasi Jumbe, Dar es Salaam.
