ONLINE SCHOLARSHIP APPLICATIONS

 
Sir,

On Monday May 20, 2019, the Ministry of Labour and Social Security PS was on air telling the nation that as from this year all applications for scholarships should be online.

He emphasised that those who happened to have submitted hard copies of their applications should start the process again online as their applications would not be considered.
During the course of the week, the minister for Labour and Social Security also informed the nation that applicants can submit hard copies and can also apply online.

I then asked myself, what is happening in this ministry?
Does the PS work and disseminate information without consultation? If the change was necessary, did Cabinet approve it considering the country’s networking system?

Believe

Did they think that such a change would suit all the school leavers in all regions of the country? It seems the change was never discussed at Cabinet level whereas it is an important change touching the lives of many people in the country. I want to believe that if the matter was discussed at Cabinet level or consultations made with relevant ministries, it would have been realised that it is still premature to do away with hard copies.

Perhaps the system should have been piloted in a way to see if it would work.
This could have also allowed the ministry to determine the period they would allow applicants to file their applications online. It is an honest fact that the ICT infrastructure in the country still needs to be improved to be reliable.

Encouraging

The bandwidth in some areas is just not encouraging at all. Most internet connections in the country are very slow, no matter which internet provider you are using. You have to stay in front of a computer for a long time waiting for a webpage to open. 

I think the ministry needs assistance in dealing with the scholarship issue. Ever since the facility was removed from the Ministry of Education and Training, we have had problems throughout the tertiary institutions’ academic years.
The only break is when they are closed. Recently, the PS is on record to having said all students had been paid their allowances except for 15 students from William Pitcher College.

Allowances

Just before the end of the same week of having said that, students from UNESWA stormed the ministry’s offices to demand their allowances, which they had not been paid. The response then was ‘you will get your allowances by next week’. Is this not the same man who said all students were paid except 15 students from William Pitcher College?

I want to believe that the ministry has a budget for all the students sponsored by government. The budget is to assist the students during the course of the academic year.

If the students are given the money at the end of the academic year, when are they going to use it for their education expenses? The ministry’s officials seem to operate like they have never been to a tertiary institution. This is affecting the standard of education in the country.

Concerned citizen

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