Scholarship awardees told to help themselves

Parents of students receiving full or partial scholarships from government are being told to pull their own weight, instead of being fully dependent on the financial assistance they are to receive.
The recommendation by Principal of the Antigua State College (ASC), Hyram Forde, came amidst the growing debate over changes to the Prime Minister’s Scholarship Programme.
Forde said there has to be a realisation that higher education demands a partnership between the government, quasi-governmental agencies and beneficiaries.
“I am firmly of the view that beneficiaries need to contribute to their own professional development and advancement. And, I am not aware that there are any agencies in Antigua that offers the full cost of the programmes being pursued, and therefore, as necessity, one has to get support from family or otherwise,” Forde said.
He stated further, people must realise that there is a beneficiary cost and beneficiaries must put something into finishing their respective degrees.
Deputy Principal at the University of the West Indies (UWI), St Augustine Campus in Trinidad & Tobago, Professor Rhoda Reddock said the tale is all too familiar at the UWI campus.
She said students have enrolled in the university without knowledge of how their programme will be funded.
The problem, she said, is also compounded by the fact that contributions from regional governments have declined.
(More in today’s Daily Observer)