A new controversy broke out in the last few hours and keeps millions of students throughout the country on alert after it became known that the Colombian Institute of Educational Credit and Technical Studies Abroad (Icetex) lacks money to grant and maintain loans. The ball has been passed to each other, but there are two main entities: The Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Education.
It has been said that the situation arises because the Treasury portfolio has not transferred 402,000 million pesos of this validity to the Education portfolio, which subsequently passes them on to Icetex. This has generated delays in the disbursements of registration fees for the second semester of 2024 and, at the same time, has the payments for the first semester of 2025 in suspense.
Given the controversy, the Minister of Education, Daniel Rojas, assured in dialogue that the money is not in “suspense” and sent a message of peace of mind to the students. The official stated that the situation arises due to the resources that are being allocated to attend to emergencies caused by rain, but that the money will be transferred without any inconvenience in the coming days.
“The Ministry of Finance has rescheduled the transfers of the 400,000 million pesos that are missing to complete the budget for the 2024 validity of Icetex. and what they have told me from the Ministry of Finance is that this rescheduling is due to the changes that are being made as a priority to address the winter emergency, but that are going to be done effectively,” he stated.
The head of the Education portfolio emphatically emphasized that “No student who has credit with Icetex is at risk of these transfers not being made.”
Catherine Juvinao, representative to the Chamber of the Green Alliance, denounced the situation and has revealed everything that apparently would be happening, warning that more than 200,000 people have their studies for next year at risk. In this regard, Rojas responded harshly:
“This is a generation of panic that I want to mitigate and tell students that they can be calm and safe from those resources400,000 million pesos that are part of this validity. The Minister of Finance has committed to us to reschedule these transfers and is not going to put the continuity of his studies in suspense,” he noted.
The Minister of Education, Daniel Rojas, spoke on Noticias Caracol about complaints from students who say they have not been able to enroll in universities due to lack of money transfers from Icetex. This is what the official responded.
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In the same way, Rojas was emphatic stating that he does not seek to end Icetex, as has been said. “It is a far-fetched decision, because I cannot wither an entity that is not part of the Education sector. Even if it were part, it wouldn’t do it either, Icetex by virtue of a decree is an entity linked to the Ministry of Finance,” he commented.
On the other hand, the Minister of Education also responded to the controversy over two officials for the board of directors that he supposedly appointed to Icetex and who are denounced by this entity. The member of the Petro Executive pointed out that there are rules and that these two people are victims of Icetex.
“They are people who have represented the movement of victims of students who have even committed suicide due to the harassment that Icetex has done to them and their families for being debtors. (…) I work with them because they represent the victims, the people who have suffered debts and obviously in this government we work with the victims and not with the perpetrators,” he stated.
