new delhi bad loans in the education sector have shown a rising trend in the past three financial years with npas nearing 9 per cent of the outstanding by march 2018 according to an official datawhile disbursing the loans banks follow the indian banks associations iba model education loan scheme which provides for repayment period of up to 15 years under the scheme there is a provision for a oneyear moratorium on repayment after completion of studies besides there is a moratorium on repayment on account of spells of unemployment underemployment 23 times during the life cycle of the loan period as per the iba data the percentage of npa to outstanding education loan rose from 73 per cent in march 2016 to 767 per cent in the following year and then jumped to 897 per cent in march 2018 the outstanding education loan amount at the end of 201718 was rs 7172465 crore of which rs 643462 crore was npa in the last financial year public sector banks psbs disbursed rs 13470 crore loan to 786 lakh students as per another set of data 15 lakh students from tamil nadu availed education loan last year followed by kerala 99314 and karnataka 90630 the finance ministry recently informed parliament that in order to facilitate easy processing and disbursal of loans vidya lakshmi portal was launched where students can view apply and track their education loan application psbs share in total lending by banks to the education sector is about 915 per cent