Scholarship crisis

It would appear that the woes of our ailing education sector are far from over as evidenced by the number of students who have to drop out of tertiary institutions due to a lack of scholarships.

It has been reported that over 500 students will be forced to drop out of university if government does not cater for their fees.
These are students who are doing their first year at the university. Should they fail to secure an alternative means of financing their education, what kind of a future are they to look forward to?

Education is one of the most important things one needs to acquire in life and this importance cannot be overly stressed because it decides where you stand in life and your prospects for the future. At the moment the future looks bleak for these scholars.
Education is the key to self empowerment. A nation of people who are not empowered is a nation with people who are not aware of their rights; people who cannot fight for their rights; people who cannot be better citizens because they will be wholly dependent on their government for their welfare.

Such a situation will further contribute to moral decay as unemployment will be on the rise and with it crime.
The inability to create a nation of well educated individuals will retard economic growth like an athlete trying to run while dragging a brick behind him.

Not having a skilled labour force will mean importing expensive skilled personnel from other countries or worse yet, having to make do with the grossly under qualified labour force at hand.

Denying the youth the opportunity of a tertiary education would take us back to the colonial era where only an elite few held tertiary qualifications.
The sad reality of the matter, however, is that it isn’t economically possible for government to provide scholarships for all the students in the country. One possible solution would be for government to attract foreign scholarships and publicise them within the country. This would encourage pupils to strive for better grades so they can be guaranteed a foreign scholarship to study either locally or abroad.

Furthermore, a lot more work needs to be done to promote the culture of saving in the country. Parents should be taught to begin saving for their children’s university fees from early on so as to prevent the scramble for the few scholarships the government does provide at the moment.
The government has also shown that the scholarship fund is not sustainable.

It is saddening to read about teenagers dropping out of school due to pregnancy as this is one of the leading contributors to the poverty cycle. Pregnant teenagers will have twice as much difficulty completing high school and competing for tertiary scholarships and as such, are likely not to succeed in life thus perpetuating the cycle of poverty.

Let us work hand in hand with the government to ensure that our children complete school and are given the opportunity to make a better life for themselves and their country.

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