Times Of Swaziland: HOPE FOR REJECTED STUDENTS

HOPE FOR REJECTED STUDENTS
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BY MELISA MSWELI on 08/10/2019 01:11:00


MBABANE – Government has sent an SOS to all the universities who have students
who were left out when scholarships were awarded, not to chuck the learners out
of class.
This is because government is pulling all stops to ensure that the students
continue with their studies without any glitches.
The SOS is for those students who were accepted by the various universities and
started learning in anticipation that government would award them the
scholarship.
As things stand, luck may be on the side of some of the students.
There are close to 800 students who applied for scholarship and commenced
classes only to find out that they did not get financial assistance from
government.
Attempt
In an attempt to assist the students, government has released a list of some
students who could stand a chance of getting scholarship, requesting the
different institutions not to chuck them out of class as yet.
Confirming the list and plea to tertiary institutions was acting Principal
Secretary in the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, Norman Gamedze, who
said it was not all the students who were accepted at the various tertiary
institutions who formed part of the current list.
He said it was only those with exceptional results who were competing.
“Akukhulunywa ngabo bonkhe bantfwana but kukhulunywa ngalabo labavela embhikwe
scholarship board kwakhandzakala kutsi baya qualify kepha basala ngendzaba
yetinkinga ta Hulumende netimali,” said Gamedze in vernacular.
In the interim, he said they wrote letters with the lists attached, requesting
the tertiary institutions to let the students continue with classes while
government was trying to find a way to help them. Gamedze said by the end of
next week, the ministry would have a clear direction of what was going to
happen.
Source
When asked where they were going to source the funds as they had, in the first
place, left them out because of finances, Gamedze said that was what they were
working on as they were currently engaging different authorities to get the
money.
“We are currently touching base with relevant authorities to find out if they
can get assistance,” he said.
Worth noting is that the students had gone to the extent of asking Members of
Parliament (MPs) to assist them in funding their tuition fees.
Most of them were reportedly still attending lessons at the various tertiary
institutions, as some had managed to pay part with the E5 000 registration fee
while others resorted to stopping attending lessons.
In some institutions, the calendar indicates that its week 10 of the current
academic year and others were preparing for their tests and projects.