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  • Zimbabwe:  Ghost Students Haunt Scholarship Scheme

    • Ghost Students Haunt Scholarship Scheme
    • THE Presidential Scholarship Scheme for poor undergraduates studying at South African universities has fallen prey to ghost students. This is at a time when the programme is struggling to get funding for the upkeep of the current stock of students studying south of the Limpopo River.

      Tendai Biti, the Minister of Finance, has been fighting to have the Presidential Scholarship Scheme put under his wings or better still under the Ministry of Higher Education for purposes of transparency and accountability. This followed allegations, which have not been denied, that the scheme had been used to educate children of top government officials, including their relatives, instead of the needy.

      While the programme targets able but disadvantaged students from rural schools in remote districts, it has been known to benefit children of the nouveau riche who can afford tertiary education for their siblings.

      The existence of ghost students is likely to galvanise Biti and others who want a total makeover of the current arrangement.

      Last year, Members of Parliament took turns to attack Christopher Mushohwe, the Governor and Resident Minister of Manicaland who administers the scheme, over the manner in which the beneficiaries of the programme were chosen and questioned his credentials as the overseer of the initiative.

      They felt that the scholarships were being run in a non-transparent manner and were not benefitting the intended beneficiaries, the less privileged in society.

      Highfield West MP, Simon Hove went to the extent of questioning Mushohwe's credentials, arguing that his curriculum vitae (CV) was not good enough to earn him the position of overseer of the Presidential Scholarships.

      Said Hove: "When I look at his history, I find his CV questionable. This man had to get the intervention of the Vice Chancellor (of the University of Zimbabwe) to get a higher qualification. It is high time for this House to put a stop where there is rot".

      When Mushohwe was contacted he said he could not comment as he was out of the country.

      "I am out of the country and can hardly hear you," said Mushohwe, in apparent reference to bad network.To show that all had not been well for a long time now, the government's Medium Term Plan (2011 to 2015) said there is growing concern over the social-well being and career progression of the growing number of students studying outside the country.

      Six thousand students are estimated to be studying in South Africa while 220 students are said to be in Algeria.

      As one of its policy measures, according to the MTP, the government had resolved to: "monitor the social well-being and carrier progression of students studying outside the country. Appoint education attaches to attend to the welfare of the growing number of students studying in South Africa and Algeria."

      More drama has continued to unfold around the Presidential Scholarship Programme.

      It emerged this week that students in almost all the universities covered under the programme have not yet received a single cent for their livelihood since the beginning of the year and are starving as a result.

      This has caused a sharp rise in prostitution, abortions and other forms of crime especially among Zimbabwean students in universities such as KwaZulu Natal, Witwatersrand, Monash, Nelson Mandela and Rhodes as many of them do not have any other sources of income for basics.

      Most universities have not received fees for students. As a result, most of of them have been encumbered and cannot continue classes.

      But these cases have been kept under wraps by the universities as a way of making the government bring more students to South Africa, which has experienced an inexorable rise in the number of Zimbabwean students enrolled there. "There are now plans to drop at least half the students from the programme under the pretence that they failed in their studies," said a source within the Presidential Scholarship Department at Compensation House in Harare.

      A number of students have so far been brought back to Zimbabwe regardless of how they have progressed with their studies.

      "Even a student who has one semester left on his or her programme is being shown the door even after writing a supplementary examination. We even heard that with the election coming, the government is bringing more students as a campaign strategy," said one of the affected students.
  • Tags:Nelson Mandela, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo River, Tendai Biti, Christopher Mushohwe, Rhodes.
  • Source:LEADERSHIP

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