FCT Scholarship Only For Public Schools, Poor – Director
By: Wisdom Acka & Damilola Adeleke
Director, FCT Scholarship Board, Hannah David, has said that the Board’s scholarship was only for public schools and children of the less privileged.
The Director, who said this yesterday at LEA Primary School LEA Secretariat, Wuse Zone 2, Abuja, explained that those who enrolled their children in private schools have the capacity to bear the cost of their education in those schools.
David also stressed that the scholarship programme was solely for FCT indigenous students schooling in the tertiary and secondary institutions as well as basic special needs centers.
She stated this during free issuance of scholarship application forms to about 12,500 students of FCT natives from different schools.
She stated that one of the major responsibilities of the Board was to provide educational assistance to FCT indigenous students in tertiary institutions.
Her words: “Our aim is to see that indigenes of FCT acquire proper education…and the scholarship is only for government schools, not private schools. It is our belief that anyone taking his child to a private school, can afford it. So we target those who cannot.”
Speaking further on the scholarship procedure, the Director explained: “After issuing the forms, we screen the students to know their eligibility, after which we give them written test to qualify them for the award.”
According to her, successful candidates would get their monies paid to their accounts directly.
“That is why we advise the beneficiaries to write correct account numbers because we previously had challenges in reaching them, because of wrong account numbers. Each name has to tally with each beneficiary.
“We do not stop there, we have a monitoring unit in the Board which goes to the various schools to monitor the students to make sure they use the money judiciously,” she added.
Some of the past beneficiaries who talked to us thanked the Board and FCT Administration; promising to use the proceeds that would arise from the forms judiciously.
One of the beneficiaries, Samuel Precious, a student of Nasarawa State University, said that he has benefitted so much from the programme, as it has helped him greatly in paying tuition fees for his education.
