Gustavo Petro proposed that Icetex forgive all debts to students

In a debate organized by Universidad Externado de Colombia last Tuesday, candidate Enrique Gómez of the National Salvation Movement went against Petro directly for his proposal to forgive Icetex credits, assuring that giving away silver does not solve Colombia's problems. In addition, the problem is not debt, but the quality of higher education in Colombia.

“The debt of Icetex must be forgiven. Half of those who have credit and are studying leave the university and don't finish. Several think of suicide and take away the time of entrepreneurship once the race to repay the debt is over. I plan to forgive the debt and take it towards credit for studies abroad,” said Petro of the Historical Pact.

He also said that “talking about the Icetex credits that I proposed to forgive because they lead the student to leave university, to have no option of entrepreneurship after graduation or to think about suicide. Higher education is a right not a business with public money.”

It is worth mentioning that, within the government proposals of the Pact Histórico candidate, he proposes to increase the current education budgets, and also enunciates a program for the return of doctors located abroad.

But since Gomez had taken his comment against Petro and his proposal to social media at the very moment of the debate, the former mayor of Bogotá also decided to make a public response defending his proposal.

The proposal of the left-wing leader has generated all kinds of criticism, likewise, the rain of criticism has not stopped, since his opponents have described him as a populist, although he has received support on social networks on the subject of education. Many users have written that they are professionals, but that they are going to spend it all their lives they pay that debt. It is that, in the past, many complaints and criticisms have arisen from students, who use this form of funding.

First, everything that has generated Petro's proposal, Icetex, which is an institution that has both great beneficiaries and people who have not been able to manage the stress of debts and the challenge of studying in the midst of deprivation, so they have contemplated the idea of suicide.

Manuel Acevedo, president of Icetex, attests to the mechanisms that exist to avoid mental health problems and explained that “we have a professional with training and clinical experience who deals with these cases. It is this person who helps us understand this phenomenon. It tells us that, out of ten cases, only one could be a credit-related situation. In the others, credit makes the situation more complicated, but it is not the determining factor,” replied the president of Icetex.

It is noteworthy that, the entity reported that from this month it will grant two financial relief to those who are indebted with education credits. This incentive campaign will run until August 31.

The first relief consists of a transitional reduction of the interest rate of 50% of the additional points to the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which applies to those who do not have a subsidy rate on their credit, but their financing has a CPI rate to which a certain number of points are added. With this the points are reduced by half.

Likewise, for those who were accessing the Covid aid of Interruption of Payments and Reducing the Interest Rate, they automatically become beneficiaries of the transitional reduction

While the second relief is a six-month suspension of contributions for those who are unemployed; this implies that no interest will be generated during that time, it can be extended for another six months and applies to both those who are up to date on their debt and those who are in arrears.

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