Kingsly Agyeman
With almost a day to the deadline for the online application for tertiary scholarships for the 2020 batch of the West Africa Secondary School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE), the Ghana Scholarships has disclosed that over 20,000 graduates have applied so far.
It can be recalled that the Secretariat in a press briefing dubbed ‘The Big Announcement’ on December 1, declared that following a directive from President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, had opened its online portal for students to apply for scholarships for their tertiary education following their sterling performance in the WASSCE.
Registrar of Scholarships, Mr Kingsley Agyemang had pointed during the press briefing that this year had been the only year in the past six years that more than 50 per cent of candidates scored between grade A1 and C6 in all core subjects.
He had stated that considering the extreme physical and psychological conditions under which the candidates wrote their examination, the results were a clear manifestation that the government’s interventions aimed at ensuring that Ghanaian youth had access to inclusive and equitable quality SHS education, as well as attain better learning outcomes, were working.
Overwhelmed
In a telephone interview with this paper, Mr Agyemang said he was not so much surprised with the huge number of applicants because the Akufo-Addo-led government in its first term in office has prioritised education to the extent that almost every Ghanaian of school going age are eager to take advantage and get educated.
“Look, I am not surprised that in just two weeks we have this overwhelming figure. In fact when we made the Big Announcement on December 1, the portal was jammed because everyone wanted to apply on time before they miss out,” he said.
He added that the news from the President was so good that some unscrupulous persons decided to take advantage of it by creating a fake website to dupe the graduates.
“However, our intelligence was fast and we were able to inform the public about the fake website which eventually got pulled down,” Mr Agyemang said.
Nationwide interviews
Mr Agyemang further said once the online application is closed, the Secretariat will commence with the next phase, which is the nationwide interview for applicants who were successful with the online application.
He stressed that all the applicants will be notified through an SMS message when they are to report for an interview and at which district.
“Somewhere this year, we had a successful interview of applicants who applied in April across the country. We are looking forward to having same with these graduates. So in all, it has been a successful first phase and we wish the applicants the best,” he added.