• Submitted by: lena campos
• Society
• 04 / 16 / 2014

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We have suffered for too long under the name of government scholarship. This situation, besides making living and learning in Cuba hard for us, is also having a negative impact on the image the Ghanaian people have about scholarship students. Every year for the past three years we have had to come out at least once a year to publicly complain about the payment of our subventions by the government. We are not selfish nor ungrateful, we only ask for what the government owes us by contract, to which we also owe several years of service after our studies.

If the ministry of finance claims that such funds have been released to the Ghana scholarship secretariat since January of this current year, then how come four months since the said action, the same students to whom these funds are meant still live under harsh financial conditions? Does the government not have the necessary mechanisms in place to make sure that monies set for specific purposes are really used for such? Enquiries I personally made to the scholarship secretariat in February of this current year revealed that, funds to cover our monthly subventions for the first quarter of this year(January, February and March) had yet not been released for payment. If every governmental authority related with the payments of such monies has a different story to tell, who is telling the truth then?

The only truth here is that, we the students are the only victims in this. It is our lives and education that has been affected by these actions or inactions on the part of the concerned authorities. Currently, according to the agreed payment schedule, the government has failed to pay subventions dating from December 2013, to June 2014, making a total of 7 months. No one sitting in Ghana can imagine the way we have to live and study in a socialist country like Cuba, coupled with the trade and communications embargo. Out of the over 300 students here, how many of them receive help or aid from their families? Does this relieve the government of its responsibility to us? Does this relieve the government of its part of the contract? Should that be an excuse for the failure on the part of the government? What then happens to those who for some reason do not benefit from such help, even if they are the minority?

Source: Ghana Web.com