Students allowed to register

By GLORIA BAUAI
MORE than 30 Morobe students intending to study at Lae Polytech Institute have been allowed to register with a guarantee letter, a government official says.
Morobe scholarship officer Jordan Dama said these were students awaiting scholarship funds from the Morobe government and could not afford the K850 compulsory fee set by the institute.
The institute’s financial controller Arnold Haip told The National last week that the K850 constituted a K350 resource fee and K500 administration fee which all students had to pay before registering.
Dama said the scholarship office was still waiting for the provincial treasury accounts to be opened in March before any funds were diverted for this purpose.
He said for this reason, all 33 institutions throughout the country recognised by the scholarship office had not received any funds yet.
“I want to thank Polytech for coming through for our Morobe students at the last minute,” he said.
“Similar gratitude goes to the other institutions who have allowed our students to register with a guarantee letter.
“We will pay the funds as soon as money hits our accounts.”
Dama said last year’s scholarship budget was K8 million and was expected to be increased this year.
He said there were more than 2,000 Morobe students under the scholarship scheme, with the University of Goroka having the highest number of these students.