JUBA – The Minister of Higher Education Madut Biar has announced plans for equitable distribution of scholarship opportunities among South Sudanese students, following claims of unfair allocation.
Minister Biar said the scholarship slots will now be equally distributed among the 10 states and three administrative areas, with the consideration of female students.
“That meeting actually raises a concern which actually I took, and that is going to change in the near future. When there are a scholarship, it will actually divide it among the 10 states and three administrative areas,” he said to SSBC on Tuesday after meeting parliament speaker Jemma Nunu and other education stakeholders.
“We will give slots to each state so that a students from each state they go and compete among themselves and when and also we are going to consider also the issue of 35% or affirmative action in the coming scholarship that are going to be offered to South Sudanese students.”
This comes after some online users expressed dissatisfaction with the selection of 30 candidates who they perceive to have been from one ethnic group, for an Indian scholarship.
The complaint came after the ministry recently released a list of selected students chosen to travel to India under the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) scholarship program.
The ministry later rubbished allegations that the recent Indian Government Scholarship selection criteria were based on tribalism, insisting that they were based on performance and merit.