After it already gave away fully funded multimillion-dollar scholarships to Ministers and other party affiliates, the Government has announced that it is now employing a transparent awarding process.
An online application service for the scholarships will be introduced by 2018.
A statement issued by the Ministry of the Presidency on Wednesday noted that a “transparent process (was) now being employed in award”.
The release quoted the Head of the Public Service and Permanent Secretary of the Department of Public Service, Reginald Brotherson as saying that the Department has been working to ensure that a transparent process was created and managed to afford Guyanese citizens scholarship opportunities.
It was also disclosed following questions by the parliamentary Opposition that Junior Education Minister Nicolette Henry is doing her PhD in Public Health to the tune of $3.36 million, while Junior Public Infrastructure Minister Annette Ferguson is benefiting from a $3.38 million scholarship in Public Policy Management.
Additionally, Education Minister, Dr Rupert Roopnaraine’s daughter, Alicia, is benefiting from a $2.58 million scholarship at a university in the UK. She is studying psychology.
Other notable beneficiaries are former Chief Education Officer Olato Sam, who is studying education policy in Jamaica, at a cost of some $946,000, and a Guyana Chronicle Board Director Tabitha Sarabo-Halley, who is currently pursuing public policy management studies in the UK to the tune of $3.4 million.
President David Granger, however, said he saw nothing wrong in his ministers benefiting from these Government scholarships, which many believe would have been better granted to persons who truly could not afford to further their studies.
In defending the decision, President Granger said he was not concerned about scholarships being granted to persons holding office within his Administration, since he believed that with higher qualifications, officers of the State could improve their performance.
Against this backdrop, however, Brotherson said the Department now has a national panel, the first of its kind, which consists of professionals from the Education Ministry, Private and other sectors who have been tasked with shortlisting and interviewing applicants.
The panel, which would be renewed every year, is made up of veteran educators Ingrid Fung and Donna Chapman, Private Sector Commission (PSC) representative Elizabeth Alleyne, Claudette Austin from the University of Guyana (UG) and Executive Director of the Public Service Staff College, Randolph Leitch. From July 2015 to date, more than 500 applications have been processed.
Applicants must be 35 years or under and in good health to qualify, must gain admission to the University they wish to attend and must have a valid Guyana passport. Applicants who are already students must have a minimum grade point average (GPA) of 2.7 or above, while foreign students must have a 3.0 GPA or 75 per cent. All applications are reviewed by this panel, and applicants are shortlisted and invited for interviews.
During the interview process, applicants are graded on five main areas: qualifications (10 points); relevance of scholarship (10 points); adaptability (4 points) and ability to cope in a different environment (for foreign students); experience in the field (for postgraduates)/maturity (for undergraduates) (4 points); acceptance of scholarship conditions (2 points) and knowledge of the field of studies. Once the points have been tallied from the interviews, the recommendations are then sent to the Permanent Secretary and the Minister of State, Joseph Harmon, who has responsibility for the public service sector.
However, the statement did not explain who is responsible for the final selection of the applicants receiving the scholarships.
Meanwhile, as the country pursues a ‘green agenda’ and with the potential for a booming oil and gas industry, Government will also give special consideration to applications which are made for studies in the environmental sciences, oil and gas development or any other related fields.
The Department is currently supporting 186 students studying abroad and another 705 who are pursuing studies locally.
Overseas-based awardees have their tuitions and airfares paid for by the host country in most cases, while the Government of Guyana provides some allowances.
