Dear Editor

Year after year issues are raised in the media about the awarding of scholarships. The overall point raised in relation to the awarding of scholarships was and is that it was unfairly done. I am not going to contest the pros and cons of that but rather to suggest a way where we can stretch the government's funding to ensure that a lot more of our deserving students get to pursue theirs and their parents dream of obtaining tertiary education.

In addition to the fully funded scholarship that the government offers, I am suggesting that the government also offer partially funded scholarship. This is not a ground-breaking suggestion because other countries have also offered similar schemes in the past. The Aotearoa scholarship previously offered by New Zealand comes to mind. I stand to be corrected but I believe that this scholarships funded tuition fees while the parents met airfares and livingr costs. The Aotearoa scholarship I believe was focused on Secondary schools but I'm suggesting a partial scholarship targeting tertiary education both in and outside Solomon Islands.

The partial scholarhsip will fund tuition fees while parents meet airfare and living cost. While it may look dragonian from the outset, if parents are keen to secure their children's future they can work towards meeting the other cost. I am sure our social system of relatives helping each other could kick-in to ensure that the costs to be met by the parents are met.