Presenting the cheque to the beneficiaries, Msg Buchi Aninye, Chairman of the Delta State Scholarship Board, said that the beneficiaries were different from the batch that would soon receive the third tranche payment of their scholarship.
Aninye said that the beneficiaries were those, who wrote the board’s competitive examination on Sept. 1, and scaled through the bench mark set by the board.
He also said that the state government, being conscious of a sustainable development programme for the state, identified education as one of its critical input needed to move the state to the next level.
The chairman said that this was because the administration was convinced that the future for a better Delta with a robust economy and well informed Delta people was largely in education being given its rightful place.
Aninye further said that all the scholarships being rolled out by the government were practical demonstration of the state government's commitment to its human capital development programme.
The chairman also explained that the state government had different types of scholarship programmes, which include first class scholarship, as well as local scholarship scheme.
Others he said, were the financial assistance to students of Delta origin in the five campuses of the Nigerian Law School, students’ special assistance scheme and scholarship for children of deceased civil servants.
Aninye said that the challenge in ensuring continuity was enormous, especially as the board areas of jurisdiction was to meet the needs of students, whom he described were like ``Oliver Twist’’.
He, however, said that the board would continue to give the students utmost attention, no matter how uncomfortable it might be and would not renege on its duty.
In his remarks, the Commissioner for Higher Education, Prof. Hope Eghagha, said that it was an indisputable fact that education was needed to achieve the development of human resource base, required to drive the economy of the state.
Eghagha represented by Mrs Stella Itoto, Director, Research and Statistics in the ministry, also said that it was against this backdrop that the state opened its door to provide the needed leverage for its citizens to achieve academic height.
He further said that there was no better investment than to invest in education, adding that the government was working towards having a reservoir of research fellows that would constitute the human resource base.
He, however, said that the scholarship was not tied to the beneficiaries working for the state after the completion of their programmes.
He stressed that the Delta project was one that required all hands to be on deck in order to move the state to an enviable height.
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