By Ngor Deng Matem
Northern Bahr El Ghazal State intellectuals are alarmed over unfair scholarship distribution to South Sudanese students to study outside the country.
A section of the intellectuals accuses officials in the state ministry of higher education and others in the national government of favoring their relatives.
Soon after the state higher education ministry announced the nominees for the scholarship, with a trivial number of beneficiaries hailing from Aweil, the noises started popping out.
Moses Diing Dut, one of the concerned citizens said there was not a single child from Aweil or Northern Bahr El Ghazel state given a scholarship to Russia, this year, out of over 20 vacancies.
He said all the scholarships were awarded to other counties.
“Some of the children from Aweil who applied and met the requirements were denied,” he said.
Mr. Dut also complained that last week, only 11 students from Northern Bahar El Ghazel state got chances for an Egypt scholarship, while other states had more opportunities.
Other intellectuals also accused the state Ministry of General Education of not unveiling scholarship opportunities to the public to enable children to apply.
“Some states are allocated more chances than others, and Northern Bahr El Ghazal State is getting zero and sometimes fewer than the expected number,” Gabriel Kur Kur, another Aweil intellectual, complained.
However, Northern Bahar El Ghazel state’s Director General in the Ministry of Education and Instructions, Santino Bol Akot, acknowledged the unfairness in distribution foreign scholarships.
But he exonerated the state from the disproportionality.
“There are no reasons to point fingers at ourselves and leave those who are denying opportunities to our children alone,” Bol responded.
The director general equally believes there is no fair distribution of scholarships.
“There was no fair distribution of chances of scholarships; many students who applied were denied and replaced with relatives,” he said.
Bol cited one student from Northern Bahar El Ghazel, who he said had applied but was denied a Russian Federation scholarship though she had all the required documents.
“More chances are given to States whose sons and daughters are serving in the ministry of higher education,” Bol further claimed.
Bol alleged that students whose parents work in top government offices were given scholarships, without applying for it.
He stressed that sometimes States are given more application forms for students to fill out, but later more than 90% of applications are undermined.
However, efforts to reach the Ministry of Higher Education for comment on the accusations were futile by press time.