Open schol winner still awaiting fees

An Open Scholarship student is free to apply to any university globally and the Government pays the tuition, other fees and the student upkeep.

This month, a family acquaintance who won an Open Scholarship in 2015 started studies at a foreign university. This student was accepted since last year. The relevant government agency was given all the relevant documents and information long before September.

The Government has not paid the student’s tuition fees or any other fees at this time. It did pay for a one-way ticket for the student to travel.

This is not a family of “means”.

Thus going to a bank for a loan to cover the tuition is out of the question.

Why should the family have to do that anyway? The university kindly allowed the student to start classes but there is a red flag on its system that fees are outstanding.

The student is unable to access any of the university’s online facilities, library and other amenities until the fees are paid.

Worst of all is the fact that the student cannot submit assignments (and one is already overdue) because the fees are outstanding.

The Government has told the family that tuition fees might be paid by November.

Do you have any idea what this student’s state of mind would be by November? Do you have any idea how many assignments the student would not be able to submit? This is a disgrace of the highest order to TT .

So must this student suffer academically because of the “don’tcare, lackadaisical” attitude of the relevant government agencies? Please do not tell me any rubbish that the Government has no money.

If the Government cannot afford to pay students’ tuition and other fees, then do not offer so many scholarships.

It is ironic that the Minister of Education recently stated that the Government is looking to offer even more scholarships.

Any future awardees reading this should be properly warned about what lies ahead.

There is no doubt that if this student was a relative of a current or past government minister, all fees would have already been paid to the university.

Linus F Didier Mt Hope