Initially awarded to only one recipient, the $25,000 Merit scholarship will now be awarded to four deserving Bahamian students, it was announced yesterday.

The change comes after a National Scholarship Advisory Committee spent the past year reviewing the now defunct Bonded Scholarship scheme that was replaced with the government’s Guaranteed Loan programme.

However education officials noticed that although students were deserving of assistance from the scheme, many of them failed to qualify for it.

This gave birth to the Merit Scholarship Programme, a partnership involving the government, the Central Bank of The Bahamas and the Lyford Cay Foundation.

According to Minister of Education, Science and Technology, Alfred Sears, the programme has now been restructured to ensure its sustainability, as well as give all post-secondary students a fair opportunity to become a recipient.

"This national scholarship programme will be a partnership between the government and the private sector," Minister Sears explained.

"The scheme, which has been approved by the Cabinet will commence this year, initially funded by the government. But the Committee is in discussions with a number of private sector partners."

Philip Simon represents the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and the wider community on the scholarship’s Advisory Committee.

He too stressed the importance of the public and private sectors working together to ensure the country has continued development and sustainability.

"We can and must all agree that there is no more important resource that we have than that of our youth and no more important ingredient to the future success of our nation than the success of our students," Mr. Simon said.

"As such, the responsibility lies not just on the government, teachers or parents alone but…the overall support and input from each stakeholder in this process, for we all would pay the collective price of failure as a result of ignorance or the lack of information, poor planning or simply lost opportunity."

This year, the four Merit scholarships for four years each will be awarded to two New Providence recipients, and others in the Family Islands.

According to Reginald Saunders, administrator for the Ministry’s Scholarship and Loan Division, the Merit scholarship aims to attract those Bahamian students with "impeccable" academic credentials.

The recipient must maintain a 3.25 average in the first semester and subsequent to that, must maintain a 3.0 average, he said.

The government is also offering seven academic need-based National Scholarship Awards of up to $10,000.

Four of those recipients will be selected from New Providence, one in Grand Bahama and one in the Family Islands. This is in addition to eight technical scholarships.

In this case, applicants must maintain an overall academic average of 3.0.

There will also be eight National Technical Training Scholarships. Four of these will go to students in the capital, two in Grand Bahama and two in the Family Islands.

In this case, a 2.5 GPA is needed to qualify.

This accounts for a total of 19 scholarships with an estimated value of $250,000.

Officials say priority will be given to tertiary institutions like the College of The Bahamas and the Bahamas Technical & Vocational Institute (BTVI).

"In the case of all of these awards, the Advisory Committee felt it necessary to insist that the recipients return home," Mr. Saunders said.

Deputy Chairman of the Scholarship Advisory Committee, Arnold Forbes agreed.

"We don’t want our students to go away, get an education and stay overseas. We are hoping that they return home and share the knowledge they have learnt and assist in our nation building," Mr. Forbes said.

Interested persons are encouraged to pick up an application from the Ministry of Education’s Scholarship & Loan Division.

It can also be accessed online at www.bahamaseducation.com.

Applications will also be available at district offices throughout the Family Islands.

source: http://www.jonesbahamas.com