Education PS Rodie gives update on late government scholarships.
BY MAVIS N PODOKOLO
Government has so far given out 650 award letters of 1000 scholarships for this year.
This comes as tertiary institutions in the country and the region are either in their sixth week of classes or more.
Permanent Secretary for Ministry of Education (MEHRD) Dr Franco Rodie at a press conference yesterday indicated that most scholarship recipients will commence studies under SIG sponsorship in the second semester.
Rodie said 1000 award letters will be issued and that will be final.
“Out of the 1000 scholarships that were allocated and budgeted for only 650 award letters have been issued so, that is what we have processed so far.”
Rodie said they are about to complete the scholarship rounds of 2023.
“The only activity that is happening is issuing of awards to those students who are yet to collect their awards.
“Regarding decision on those students who might not been able to commence their studies this year or this semester they have course or programs that they will commence in semester two.
“So those students who need to travel overseas within the Pacific region to regional universities their arrangement are being met so that they can go on next semester,” Rodie said.
“At the local institution because of the delay there are some students who are not able to complete their enrolment and so they should be able to commence their studies in semester two.”
Last month, SITESA, the body inside MEHRD which deals with scholarship, made a farce by secretly letting applicants know of the status of their application.
SITESA did not publish the list of scholarship recipients for 2023 in the public space.
This did not sit well with concerned members of public, who took to social media calling on SITESA to publish the list.
Many posted on social media their suspicions that the scholarship list may have been hijacked by politicians or manipulated through corrupt means by SITESA officials responsible for approving who gets a scholarship.
Since then, SITESA did nothing to quell public concerns and demands.
Earlier this week, SBM Online reported that the minister of education Lannelle Tanangada has directed her permanent secretary, Rodie, to overtake the role of CEO from the current, Constance Nasi.
PS Rodie told SBM Online that his role is temporary and that he was brought in to “troubleshoot and speed up the 2023 scholarship awards due to delays by the SITESA Management”.
“The instruction for me to oversight comes from the Minister under the powers and duties spelt out in the SITESA Act and in concurrence with the advice issued by the AG based on his review and analysis of the Act,” Rodie told SBM Online.
