BY ALFRED PAGEPITU
THE number of SIG-students terminated has dropped significantly this year, semester 1.
Education Ministry (MEHRD) Permanent Secretary tells Island Sun that this semester’s number of terminated students is the lowest ever.
Every year, the number of Government scholarships is culled depending on the academic results of scholars. This follows the stringent requirement of the Government scholarship scheme which does not tolerate failures or low performance.
PS Dr Franco Rodie said in previous years, between 100 to 200 students were often terminated at the end of each semester because of under-performance.
He said 35 students were from USP Laucala campus and 30 from the Fiji National University.
“A total of 17 students have been terminated from the Philippines base institutions. Only one student was terminated from PNG base universities. One student from UNITECH/ Auckland was sent back because of visa issues.
“We in the MEHRD are very pleased with the success rate of our SIG Sponsored students in semester 1 and continue to encourage them to study hard,” he said.
Island sun understands that the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development (MEHRD) continue to improve the monitoring and management of SIG-scholarship.
The outcome of a review conducted in 2017 by MEHRD has resulted in a reduced number of scholarships for students to study in Philippines.
Data has shown that the students’ performances have actually improved for the last four years.
In 2014, a total of 300 students were terminated or suspended from their programmes, 2015, a total of 200 students, 2016, a total of 150 students, 2017, MEHRD only have 70 students either terminated or suspended.
