Former President Rawlings (right) in a meeting with management of the Scholarships Secretariat
Former President Jerry John Rawlings has commended the Registrar of the Scholarships Secretariat, Kingsley Agyemang, and members of his management team for the decentralization of the scholarship process.
He said the difficulty many deserving students suffer in their bid to obtain scholarships will be a thing of the past, if the secretariat supervises the process adequately to ensure that there is no discrimination.
“I am impressed that responsibility has been devolved to the districts. There has been so much prejudice against the scholarship secretariat because of the perception that there is discrimination in the choices made and it only benefits privileged persons. You have to monitor the devolved process otherwise the very thing you are trying to avoid will be repeated,” he said.
The former president said this in a meeting with the Registrar and management of the secretariat yesterday.
“During my tenure as President, I devoted 40 per cent of my time to checking corruptible tendencies. That is why I was able to contain corruption. We have difficulties giving fairness a chance in this country, with influence often overriding ability and merit. This development makes me feel good, and I urge you to give the new process more publicity so deserving students can take advantage of the process,” he added.
Fairness
Ebi Bright, National Democratic Congress (NDC) parliamentary candidate for Tema Central, who was part of the meeting, stated that there is a cultural tendency towards patronage in the country, explaining that people who have access to power tend to always compromise situations.
She noted that even with the devolution of the process, it is still going to be difficult to balance the good intentions of the secretariat. She therefore urged the Registrar and his team to do their utmost to support local talents and ideas in a fair environment.
An aide to the former President, Dr Donald Agumenu, noted that the Scholarship Secretariat plays an integral role in building human capital, and called for a fair distribution of scholarships and adequate and regular evaluation of the process.
The Registrar of the Secretariat assured the former President that his outfit, working in collaboration with regional and district authorities, has devolved the selection process to ensure that deserving students across the country are offered opportunities to obtain scholarships to further their education.
He said district assemblies will be responsible, under stated guidelines, for publishing scholarship openings using local information channels. Shortlisted applicants will then appear before the District Scholarship Secretariat after which a recommendation will be made to the Central Scholarship Review Committee secretariat for the award of scholarships.
