The National Training Unit (NTU) has announced that it can only fund 35 pre-service students for 2011.
"We are shocked and appalled that the NTU could do this to us," said a disappointed form 7 science student."They gave us so much hope, telling us to pass on our transcripts to them, which we did, and then when the list came out we were not in it," added another.
The Permanent secretary for the ministry of education, Myelin Kuve, explained that the decision to decrease the number of scholarships for pre-service students is due to financial constraints.
"Then why did they not just tell us that in the first place," said an angry form 7 arts student. "All they said was our GPA had to be above 3, I had 3.2, still no scholarship."
Mrs. Kuve explained that the government has had serious shortfalls as alot of students have been requesting, over the years, for an extension to their sponsorship. "So this backlog creates difficulties for the government."
Mrs. Kuve said that her ministry has initiated a strict policy whereby those students that fail to reach a certain standard at the end of each semester will be terminated. "This has improved the situation a little bit, with better performance from students."
It is understood that the governments spends well over $10 million dollars annually for students studying at tertiary institutions.