Over the last five years the government’s scholarship programme has been heavily flawed.
This is according to Minister of Public Service, Sonia Parag who told a virtual press conference yesterday that the first order of business was to re-establish an independent Ministry rather than a department within the Ministry of the Presidency.
The new Ministry will have three programme areas: Policy Development and Administration, Human Resource Development and Human Resource Management.
She noted that currently the sector lacks the skilled human resources it needs and is rendered inefficient by long processing times.
Attempts to address these issues will include upgrades to the Ministry’s website which should reduce the need for in-person transactions and decrease processing time.
The majority of the budget has however already been earmarked for scholarship and training programmes so as to treat the “priority needs of the public service.”
The Minister explained that there are currently 684 students who are active recipients of a Public Service Scholarship of whom 120 are studying at foreign universities.
Asked if these awards will be reviewed she said no but added that anyone who has been refused a scholarship should re-apply. Each case she assured will be reviewed on its individual merits and the process completed within a set time frame.
Parag stressed that over the last five years the system for the award of scholarships has been “heavily flawed” in that awards granted were “skewed to one demographic”.
Asked by Stabroek News to identify this demographic, Parag declined.
She was also unable to identify how many Guyanese who had completed scholarships were still unemployed.
The contract signed by recipients of scholarship awards guarantee them a job within the public sector after completion of their studies, however several graduates of the University of Guyana have publicly complained that months after their graduation they remain unemployed as placements for their particular skill sets remain unavailable.
