Dismay at cuts to Kiribati scholarships

Transcript

A Kiribati MP says he's distressed to learn that the number of university scholarships available to students this year has been reduced.

Kiribati's former president, and MP for South Tarawa, Teburoro Tito (Seeto), says he's been told that the number of government sponsored scholarships has been cut down from 60 to 40.

He says he's spoken to the education authorities concerned, and is appealing to them to reward more scholarships, as they are an important investment in human resources for Kiribati

TEBURORO TITO: I haven't got a satisfactory explanation, but I have already spoken to the authorities concerned and expressed my view that the only way to address this is to increase the awards, and to send more of these students out to attend university overseas. I feel this is a priority area which we should not ignore. This is a very important investment in human resources. And also in the context of climate change, the President has been talking about 'migration with dignity' and he defines this as migrating, going out in the world with qualifications. So that you don't go out and become a beggar out there, but so that you go out and have a decent job, and settle down nicely in a new environment. So I don't think it goes along well with what has been said about some of the mitigating measures, or the adaptation measures in relation to climate change.

LEILANI MOMOISEA: You mentioned it before about being an important investment. Along with these students missing out on their scholarships, you think it will also be a loss for Kiribati too?

TT: Very much so, very much so. From pre-school up to Form 7, for all these years, so much effort has gone into the preparation of all these young people. To go out into the world, and here they are, they come out with very excellent results. And then we tell me that that's the end of their academic career, the end of their educational aspirations. That to me is very, very distressing. I can see that they are really frustrated, they feel that they wasted all their time. And of course, most of them don't have the means, their parents don't have the means to fund their university training, so they just look up to the government to do that for them.

An education official however says the government has not reduced the number of scholarships it awards students.

The official say that there has been a drop in the overall number of scholarships awarded to students due to changes made to the way OzAid and NZAid select its scholarship recipients.