An exposé by The Fourth Estate has detailed how brilliant but needy Ghanaians are denied scholarships due to a list of favoured individuals coming from government officials.
In a recent report dubbed “Scholarships bonanza: The powerful grab as double scholarships flow”, Franklina Mensah (not her real name) who obtained an undergraduate degree with First-Class honours, is said to be a victim of the “protocol” system.
Franklina is said to have submitted her application to the government-run Scholarship Secretariat, seeking funding for a master’s degree programme in the United Kingdom (UK).
“If the scholarship was going to be awarded on merit, she felt she stood a very good chance. Her sense of optimism soared higher when she received plaudits from the interview panel, who were full of praise for her excellent proposal and academic credentials,” The Fourth Estate reported.
Sources say she heard no update from the Scholarship Secretariat weeks after her interview, prompting an “anxious” Franklina to reach out.
At the offices of the Scholarship Secretariat, Franklina is said to have met an official whose name she couldn’t recall.
“I mentioned my name, and he said, ‘Your name was on the list but there is so much protocol they had to take people out.’”
The official claimed requests come from highly influential offices including that of the President, Parliament and ministers “for this same scholarship.”
“You should understand that people will have to go off the list,” official is said to have told Frankina.
In other words, she had been shortlisted for the scholarship but a protocol list from some higher office or authority had forced her name to be taken off the shortlist.
“I was dumbfounded,” Franklina told The Fourth Estate.
Testament to her perseverance and the quality of her graduate proposal, Franklina obtained a different scholarship which enabled her to pursue her studies that same year – and in the UK as planned.
tigpost.co