Opposition MP Jone Usamate has raised concerns in Parliament over the large number of graduates funded through the Tertiary Scholarships and Loans Service (TSLS) whose employment status remains unclear.
The issue was raised following comments by Minister for Education Aseri Radrodro that only 47 per cent of students who received scholarships and tertiary funding assistance through TSLS since 2023 had secured employment.
Responding in Parliament, Usamate questioned what had happened to the remaining 53 per cent of graduates.
“It’s a bit concerning, 53 per cent of the graduates that we are not too sure whether they are unemployed or where they are,” Usamate said.
“I’m just wondering, that’s a fairly substantive percentage.”
He questioned how the figures were shaping Government policy and whether enough was being done to ensure scholarship funding translated into employment outcomes.
“I’m just wondering how this is now feeding into the Ministry’s focus of how we’re trying to make sure that the funds that we do give scholarships actually lead to people that are employed,” he said.
Usamate said the percentage of graduates whose outcomes were unclear was too high and stressed the need for stronger monitoring and accountability.
“That figure, 53 per cent, is high for me,” he said.
“What sort of policies is the Higher Education Commission or the TSLS board looking to implement to remove the 53 per cent down to below 40 per cent?”
He warned that if graduates were completing studies but authorities could not track where they had gone or whether they were contributing to the economy, it raised broader concerns about the effectiveness of tertiary funding programmes.
In response, Radrodro said Government was continuing to work with relevant agencies to address the identified gaps.
“We also continue working with other agencies to try and address the gaps that you’ve just alluded to,” the Minister said.
