Date: 2016-10-17

Owing to the current economic recession in the country, strong indications have emerged that the Kwara State government has concluded plans to discontinue the payment of bursary to indigent students from the state.

Investigation by The Point revealed that the state government may have replaced the payment of bursary to indigent students with scholarship award. Sources at the Kwara State Bursary Board confirmed that efforts were already at advanced stages to replace the #5,000 stipends with scholarship for brilliant indigent students.

A source disclosed that under the new arrangement, scholarship would be given to the three best indigent students every year.

Another source that corroborating the development, however, said that the decision to replace the annual bursary award with scholarship was taken at the education stakeholders' meeting organised by the state government last year. She said, "The government met with several stake holders in the education sector in the state and raised the motion to scrap the annual N5000 given to each students in the state."

A government source said that the plan then was to give scholarship to students who performed excellently in their studies and those that had 4.0 Cumulative Grade Point Average in their yearly academic pursuit.

He added that the government had the plan to give N30,000 to each of those in the colleges of education, N35,000 to those in the polytechnics and N40,000 to those in the universities across the country.

However, the plan to scrap bursary payment has met with stiff opposition from the parents and the students, who, under the aegis of National Association of Kwara State Students, have staged several protests demanding the reinstatement of the annual bursary, which was last paid in 2011.

While speaking with Point, NAKSS National President, Abdulhafis Oyedepo, described the planned scrapping of bursary as the height of insincerity on the part of the government.

Oyedepo said that when the students' body held a meeting with the governor in August, he promised to resume the payment of bursary once the finance of the state improved.

"The governor is only insincere, Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed promised us that once the revenue available improves, he’ll resume the payment of student bursary. We have since noticed an almost N2 billion increment in the state's finances through federal allocation and internally generated revenue .

""So, we are surprised they are still trying to shift the goal post once again. We have doubted the government's sincerity all along."