• Submitted by: admin
• Caribbean
• International
• 09 / 11 / 2007

Over 150 students will this year have an opportunity to further their studies through the Guyana/Cuba special scholarship programme.

This was revealed by Head of the Presidential Secretariat and Cabinet Secretary Dr Roger Luncheon on Friday at a special press conference.

"Guyanese parents will soon be bidding farewell to another batch of scholarship awardees, this time in excess of 150 of their offspring are preparing to go to Cuba to begin training in the academic year 2007-2008," he said.

According to the Cabinet Secretary 100 students will pursue studies in the medical field, 25 in engineering and 24 in agricultural science. An additional six students will join them under the CARICOM/ Cuba agreement.

According to tradition, the Office of the President will host an orientation function where the awardees and their parents, government officials and representatives from the Embassy of the Republic of Cuba, "will engage in an attempt to brief the students and their parents on the realities in Cuba as they get ready to face this important phase in their life."

Under the scholarship programme, these students are normally given a stipend of CAN $50 per month, while the Cuban Government provides free tuition, meals and accommodation. A Students Affairs Officer who is employed by the government of Guyana, will take care of the students while they are in Cuba.

During a visit in 2001 to Spanish-speaking Cuba, President Bharrat Jagdeo secured scholarships from President Fidel Castro for Guyanese students under the Guyana/Cuba Joint Commission. The first batch of 117 beneficiaries of the programme began their studies in Cuba one year later.

The programme is being administered locally by the Office of the President and the Public Service Ministry.