The National Coordinator of the District Level Scholarship Scheme, Setor Yaw Adanuvor has confirmed close of tomorrow as the closing date of the application window for free Senior High School graduate applicant who wishes to apply for a scholarship from the Secretariat.
Mr. Adanuvor indicated that the Secretariat as of this morning had received over 27,000 applications and advised all eligible applicants to take the opportunity and apply before the close of day tomorrow.
He also noted that there are some applicants who have not taken their aptitude test hence have not completed their application. He said these applicants are not counted as part of the 27, 000 applicants and strongly advised that such applicant make sure they take the test and complete their application.
With the matter of transparency, Protocol Officer of the Secretariat, Grace Afari-Mensah allayed fears of any form of favoritism and unmerited awarding of the scholarship to underserving applicants by saying “on our online platform there is not segment for political identification, it’s neutral. When you do the test it generates the results for you instantly so no one gets to disqualify who or to say this person deserves this or not.
“The system is audited regularly to make sure we are doing the right thing. This digitization process leaves no room for any fraudulent activities or ‘I know this person’, it has zero tolerance for that.”
Mr. Adanuvor also added his voice to the matter by saying “the process is like this, during the application process you have an aptitude test, then you also go for an interview, the interview score will add up to your aptitude test score. So when we want to pay a particular district, we look at the averages of all the applicants and rank them from the highest scored person to the least. When we take these people, as soon as it gets to the budget line, it cuts. The whole system is digitized so it’s a very transparent process.”
Mr. Adanuvor also debunked allegations that the time of the release of the “Big Announcement” was a move to score political points for the sitting president. He said the Secretariat was working with the academic calendar hence that was the appropriate time to have made that announcement.
“We are working in tangent with the academic calendar so looking at the admission processes by the tertiary institutions, it was wise for us to open the portal at that time because it was then that our students have gained admission and it’s important they are given opportunity to apply for this scholarship.”
This follows a press released tagged the “Big Announcement’” made by the Secretariat on December 1, 2020. The Secretariat announced the opportunity thrown at free SHS graduates who wishes to pursue a tertiary education in Ghana.
“The Ghana Scholarship Secretariat following a directive from H.E President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, today December 1, 2020, in a Press Conference dubbed the ‘Big Announcement’, formally opened the online scholarship application portal for the first batch graduates of the Free SHS Policy. This is to accord them an opportunity to apply for a scholarship for their tertiary education.” The release read.
