Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete has ruled out the possibility of the government granting scholarships for students pursuing education in private and foreign universities.

The president said the government was financially constrained.

’We should not pretend by assuring that we can sponsor everyone at a university of his or her choice. We can not use the meagre funds from the board (Higher Learning Education Scholarship Board) to sponsor someone who opts for Oxford (University),’ he said.

The president made the remarks on Wednesday in Kampala, Uganda.

He was fielding questions by Tanzanian students pursuing education in various institutions of higher learning in Uganda, gathered at the Tanzania’s High Commission.

The president said some universities, especially overseas, charged exorbitant fees.

By sponsoring such, Kikwete observed, many other needy students would be denied a chance to pursue education in public universities, which charge reasonable fees.

’Some universities can dry up everything from the board’s pool,’ the President said.

This was during the president’s first state visit to Uganda.

Kikwete is on a debut whirl wind tour of the region since his ascend the throne, following CCM’s emerged victory in the last December polls.

The visit will take him to Rwanda, Burundi and Kenya.

The students said there is need for HLESB to streamline the manner in, which it handles scholarship disbursement.

’Some of our friends are at home as they are not allowed to proceed with studies without payment of school fees and the board has not yet released the bursaries,’ lamented one of the students.

They asked the President to intervene and let them receive funds in accordance with specific university needs instead of the flat-rate criteria.

However, the president declined to grant the request for them to receive allowances commensurate with their Kenyan and Ugandan counterparts.

’Every loan has its scope and there shouldn’t be any difference between local and foreign universities, and whoever goes beyond what is available for him or her, should foot the deficit,’ he insisted.

However, Kikwete said it was the government’s intention to sponsor more students to spur country’s economic growth but was constrained by limited resources.

Since August last year, HLESB has been the subject of criticisms for what has been termed ’failure’ to coordinate the whole process of granting and disbursing loans.

Source : Guardian

This entry was posted on Friday, March 24th, 2006 at 7:46 pm and is filed under Education, Scholarship. Tags: Education, Grant, Loans, Scholarship, Student. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.