MEMBERS of Parliament (MPs) will no longer extend their influence into the selection process for students awarded with scholarships under their respective constituencies starting next year.
Permanent Secretary (PS) of the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development (MEHRD) Dr Franco Rodie revealed this to the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) meeting yesterday.
Dr Rodie said his ministry, through the National Training Committee (NTC), will do the selection of scholarship recipients categorised under constituencies.
Therefore, MPs will not interfere with the selection process, except to endorse the scholarships, once the list is finalised by NTC.
Dr Rodie revealed that there are three categories in the scholarships and constituency awards is one of the categories that has been regulated to ensure students deserve the scholarships according to criteria set, are given the opportunities.
He said requirements to acquire scholarships under constituencies must meet the requirement of Grade Point Average (GPA) of 3 and above.
Dr Rodie said every year each constituency will have four scholarships, thus a total of 200 scholarships comes under the 50 constituencies are awarded every year.
He also said that the successful recipients of constituency scholarships will be awarded according to courses of demand to the constituency.
Moreover, he said cost sharing will be applied for constituency scholarships, so students that apply for this category will have to show their contribution on the application form.
Dr Rodie said the scholarship category for high achievers is different from constituency ones, thus high achievers are regarded as the cream of the nation.
Meanwhile, PAC members commended the bold stand by the ministry to control the constituency scholarships from political interference, thus urging the PS and NTC to be strong in their work to manage scholarships from being abused by politicians.
By AATAI JOHN
