ABOUT 400 individuals were being awarded the 2016 Solomon Islands Government (SIG) sponsored scholarship to do tertiary studies this year.
This was revealed to the media yesterday by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development (MEHRD), Franco Rhodi.
Mr Rhodi said that, the official announcement and release of the 2016 SIG scholarship intake will be made this Thursday at the Maranatha Hall.
This includes both In-service and Pre-service awards for this year.
As usual, the Solomon Islands Government (SIG) normally announced the new intakes for its scholarship scheme based on demand and accessibility.
The 400 figure represents 124 percent increase from last year with 276 scholarship recipients.
Solomon Star understands that, the assessment and final selection was done from the thousands of applicants who applied last year.
Overall total scholarship awards last year stands at 476 – comprising of new intake of students who appealed under suspension, termination and extension.
The figure for this year is also expected to increase should the National Training Council (NTC) consider a number of extension, suspension, and termination cases from students last year and the previous years.
Meanwhile, according to the PS, the number of continuing students is well above 2,000 for this year.
By RONALD TOITO’ONA
