K5mil not enough, official says

National

A K5 million annual budget for Morobe’s Gerson-Solulu scholarship programme is inadequate, according to an official.
Deputy provincial administrator Robin Bazzinuc said the K5 million was not sufficient to cater for second semester payments.
“So we had to prioritise payments to teachers, nursing colleges and the University of Goroka. And then we make first batch payments to other institutions that the province will not benefit directly from,” Bazzinuc said.
He said a big percentage of the money was used for the first semester fees of 922 Morobe students attending 23 institutions.
“UOG alone was paid K600,000 for student fees,” Bazzunic said.
“After that we are left with very little. The second batch payment was paid only to priority institutions.”
Bazzunic said the priority institutions were the ones which would produce graduates who would come back and serve the province.
He said they would not be spending money on underperforming students who scores grade point average of two and below.
He said the students had to submit their first semester transcripts to scholarship officers for processing of the second batch payment.
“Transcript shows whether you are performing or not and deserves the scholarship. If no transcript, nothing will be considered,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Morobe Tertiary Students Union is not happy with the administration collecting students’ first semester transcripts.
Union secretary Ixzara Bakung said most students would miss out on the scholarship if the administration and scholarship officers a doing second batch payment based it on first semester transcripts.