Roberta Nti (not her real name) thought she had everything settled financially when she won a scholarship to study a master’s degree in the United Kingdom (UK).
She arrived at university in London full of hope. Receiving her first bursary of around £2,000 from her scholarship office helped her settle down a bit. She was told that she would receive more scholarship money each quarter. But that was it. The first was the last.
“My plan was to just focus on my studies and get regular scholarships to meet my needs, but now it’s hell,” Roberta said.
“I had to endure stress before my school fees were paid, so the school locked me out of the school system and sent me threatening messages to report me to the Home Office before the scholarship office paid. “I did.” [my fees]”
After paying her tuition fees, the scholarship office stopped providing her with living expenses in an expensive city like London. She didn’t have a scholarship to meet her needs, so she started working as a cleaner in what she described as “difficult circumstances.”
She was earning around £800 a month from her cleaning job. But she spent most of it – £680 – on her rent. She had to rely on allowances from her parents in her hometown and loans from her friends to survive.
Roberta now owes more than £5,000. As she struggles to repay her debt, she is acutely aware that other Ghanaian government scholarship recipients in the UK are in an even worse situation.
“One girl was almost raped because she lived with a male friend because she didn’t have a scholarship and couldn’t pay rent,” she said. The fourth estate.
“People are suffering. Students are depressed, some are being kicked out of their accommodation or locked out of school portals. But who will listen to us? ?”
While Roberta and her peers continue to endure the mental anguish of unpaid fees and scholarships; fourth estate It was discovered that some of my compatriots received multiple scholarships from the scholarship office.
Due to numerous complaints received from scholarship applicants, fourth estate in March 2021 requested data from the scholarship office on who was awarded scholarships in 2019 and 2020.
The Secretariat initially refused to grant the request, claiming the data was confidential. However, the Right to Information (RTI) Committee ordered that personal information be redacted and the data made public. The committee based its decision on the premise that the scholarships were publicly funded.
The Scholarships Office’s response to an RTI request showed that it disbursed GH¢237.5 million and GH¢200 million on both foreign and local scholarships in 2019 and 2020, respectively.
The Scholarship Office, an agency under the Office of the President, was established in 1960 with the primary purpose of providing domestic and international scholarships to students of outstanding academic ability. students in financial need. After liberation from colonial rule, the Nkrumah government established scholarship programs as a means of encouraging and attracting talent to strengthen the country’s workforce by assisting those who could not afford to finance their education. was established.
The main source of funding for the Scholarships Office is the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund). Section 2.2(b) of the GETFund Act authorizes the Scholarships Office to provide funds to support “talented but needy students for study in second cycle and accredited tertiary institutions in Ghana.” is required to be assigned.
But in recent years, the office has been criticized for perpetuating a system of patronage, often overlooking deserving applicants in favor of those with connections to politicians and high society.
For underprivileged Ghanaians with secure scholarships, many like Roberta are left feeling stranded and frustrated in a foreign land. Unable to support themselves, they are often forced to abandon their international travel courses and take up low-paying jobs to support themselves.
However, the situation is different for privileged and well-connected people. Their school fees are paid on time, and some even win Ghanaian government scholarships, while their less fortunate compatriots struggle with tuition fees and scholarships to get their first scholarship or to focus on their studies. I am struggling to get my money paid on time.
multiple scholarships
According to data received from the scholarship office, at least 17 people received multiple scholarships, allowing them to attend different programs in two consecutive years or in one year.
At least 10 people received multiple scholarships in consecutive years (2019 and 2020), with amounts ranging from £13,250 to £55,000 per school to cover tuition fees and living costs. Her seven others were awarded her two different scholarships either in different countries or in the same country in the same year.
fourth estate For example, beneficiary Sidney Osei Owusu admitted receiving £28,330 in 2019 for living expenses and tuition fees for a master’s degree in business administration at Brunel University in London. In 2020, Secretariat again paid £15,750 for an MBA in Business Management at the University of the West of England.
Another beneficiary, Keeve Kwuku Kitto, completed a master’s degree in design management at the University of Savannah in the US in 2019 and received £38,475. The following year, Mr. Kitto also completed a master’s degree in visual communication at the University of Derby in the United Kingdom, for which he received £14,500.
when fourth estate The Registrar of the Scholarships Office, Dr. Kingsley Agyemang, noted concerns that some beneficiaries would be given double scholarships while other eligible applicants would be rejected. Those who received dual scholarships claimed to have pursued complementary courses. He argued that the number of such dual beneficiaries was insignificant.
Dr. Agyemang also claimed that some of the multiple scholarships were due to “administrative errors” on the part of the office’s staff, who are used to manual record-keeping.
However, Professor Peter Quartey, director of the Institute of Statistics, Social and Economic Research (ISSER), says such multiple awards are justified in the case of courses that cannot be taken in Ghana, or specializations in science, technology and engineering. He pointed out that it is limited. And for mathematics, there are strict requirements for beneficiaries to return home to pass on their knowledge and skills.
Scholarship recipients do not return
Roberta Nti, who studied in the UK on a scholarship from the Ghanaian government, ended up supporting herself last year. She remains in the UK, bankrupt and in debt.she said fourth estate She has no plans to return to Ghana immediately after graduating in January because she can’t afford a plane ticket.
She wants to get a post-study permit so she can work and pay off her debt before thinking about what to do next with her life.
“It’s tough for my parents. In these difficult times, they have to exchange money from cedi to pounds. My mother complains that it’s hard to get home,” she said. Told.
There are many recipients of Ghanaian government scholarships in Western countries like Roberta. How many of them are refusing to return due to economic hardship, and how many, after using government support to gain a foothold in developed countries, have decided that Ghana is no longer good for them. It’s difficult to know what.
However, our data analysis shows that at least 104 government scholarship recipients (2019 and 2020) have not returned home despite signing bonds to return to Ghana after studying abroad. I did. Some of these beneficiaries have moved on from research to work in other fields.
Andrew Asafo-Agyei graduated from Brunel University in 2020 with a Master’s degree in International Relations. His education cost Ghanaian taxpayers £29,030 in government scholarships. But he now works as a mental health officer in the UK.
Barima Kwame Adu Gyimah, who won a £28,000 scholarship from the Scholarships Office, will graduate from the University of Buckingham in 2022 with a BA in Communications, Media and Journalism. He is currently a Retention Sales Executive in the UK.
Similarly, Michael Yiadom Adarkwa, who received £13,260 in state aid and completed his studies at Solent University in the UK in 2021, is currently working as an assistant residence manager. He holds a master’s degree in public relations and multimedia communications.
It was also discovered that the scholarship office does not have a system in place to ensure that beneficiaries return to Ghana.
Dr. Agyman said: fourth estate Some beneficiaries received blessings from the secretariat for securing jobs that provided them with valuable work experience, while others simply refused to return.
He acknowledged that enforcement was a major challenge, but was quick to add that even beneficiaries who were unable to return were still contributing to Ghana’s economy through remittances.
However, Professor Quartey maintains that since the rationale behind government scholarships is to train people to pass on knowledge and skills to other Ghanaians, there are ways to force beneficiaries to return home.
He said the University of Ghana had a system in place that would make the guarantor pay a fine if the scholarship recipient did not return home.
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