IN the spin of an event, six Solomon Islanders studying medicine at the University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG) are demanding the truth from the Solomon Islands Tertiary Education and Skills Authority (SITESA) within the Ministry of Education and Human Resource Development (MEHRD) about the scholarship awards they were promised.
SITESA is responsible for the administration and awarding of Solomon Islands Government (SIG) scholarships.
The students submitted copies of their letters of admission from UPNG and related documents to SITESA to consider for scholarship awards, but nothing was heard from SITESA until now and this prompted the students to seek the truth about their scholarship applications.
A spokesperson for the students said in 2023, the six students went to PNG to undertake medicine studies at UPNG under self-sponsorship arrangements.
After completing their second year, they came back home for holiday and decided to go to SITESA and requested that they be given scholarships as they found it difficult to study under self-sponsorship arrangements.
The spokesperson said they submitted their UPNG admission letters and other documents to support their application for the scholarships to SITESA.
Since then, the students never received any feedback from SITESA.
“We don’t know whether the director did see our scholarship applications, but when we visited SITESA, we were informed that our applications had already been processed and were just awaiting the signature of the Permanent Secretary.”
Thereafter, there was no word from SITESA about the scholarships.
So, the six UPNG medical students are demanding truth from the SITESA about the statue of their scholarship.
The Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development last week released the list of successful recipients for the SIG scholarships for 2025 but the six students’ names are not on the list.
So, they are demanding the truth from SITESA because they have to resume their studies this year.
By LACHLAN SHYVES EDDIE
Solomon Star, Honiara
