For the first time, over 100 students have qualified to receive scholarships or bursaries to pursue studies at the university level.
One hundred and five individuals performed credibly at this year’s Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Exam (CAPE) and the associate’s degree offered at the St Vincent and the Grenadines Community College.
The names of the individual awardees are expected to be released soon by the Ministry of Education, however Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves said that a total of 33 CAPE students reached the level to qualify for a national scholarship, which he said was the highest number recorded in history.
There was one person on the list that the ministry officials were checking the nationality status of.
According to Gonsalves, there was no record of that individual having attended secondary school here and based on the regulations governing the qualification for a national scholarship, awardees must have completed at least one year in secondary school locally.
And among the 33 students who qualified for national scholarships, Gonsalves said that four had tied to receive the Prime Minister’s Award.
The number of students who qualified for exhibition scholarships amounted to 14 and the number who qualified to receive bursaries amounted also to 14.
Regarding students in the associate’s degree program, two persons will receive special awards for having completed their programs with a Grade Point Average of 3.8 or higher with 7 qualifying for exhibition scholarships and 35 for bursaries.
“So, 44 out of associate degree programs and 61 out of CAPE programs, for the first time they have passed 100,” Gonsalves said.
He explained that national scholarships were for a period of five years and covered all the students’ expenses including tuition, accommodation, meals etc; exhibitions were for a period of three years with the same terms as the national scholarships and students qualifying for bursaries received EC$25,000 per year.