Education Ministry Clarifies Scholarship Funding

June 23, 2013

The Ministry of Education said they wish to clarify aspects surrounding the Bermuda Government Scholarship after a “misleading” report, saying that the proposed legislation is “not about reducing scholarship funding for students of financial need.”

Earlier this week Education Minister Nalton Brangman said that the scholarships will institute a ceiling of $35,000 for tuition and accommodation. Previously the scholarship package was uncapped, and extended from a low of $17,000 up to a high of almost $75,000 per school year for individual recipients.

Today a Ministry spokesperson said, “The public should be clear about the fact that the Bermuda Government Scholarship is presently uncapped and most importantly is an academic scholarship and not needs based.

“At present how the scholarship works is that whatever the educational costs are for the student, is what the Ministry is obligated to cover. As a note, in 2012, the Ministry spent in the region of $900K for the Scholarship.

The spokesperson continued, “There have been eight recipients per year for the last three years. Therefore, 24 students are funded annually before any such consideration is even given towards funding recipients for the present year.

“Therefore, if all 24 students were at a cost of $74K, then before even adding the 8 for the present year the Ministry would be paying $1.7M to support the present recipients. In total the Ministry could be carrying 32 students with varying financial requirements in any given year.

“To be clear, what is being proposed with the legislative amendments is to cap the scholarship amount to $35K per year. The present recipients will not be impacted, just those from this year forward. Therefore, over time, the total expenditure to the Ministry in any given year would be no more than $1.1M.”

The Ministry said the Bermuda Government Scholarship has been around for decades and has always been a merit-based academic scholarship. The Board of Education who recommends the candidates does not consider family income or financial need, and the Minister of Education who awards the scholarship also does not consider financial need.

The Ministry reiterated that the proposed legislation is “not reducing scholarship funding for students of financial need.”

Shadow Minister of Education Walton Brown said that while he recognizes the Government’s need to be fiscally prudent, he feels “there are other areas where money can be found to ensure that our deserving students are not the ones bearing the brunt of the OBA’s fiscal policies.”

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Comments (4)

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  1. Y-Gurl says:

    Governments clarification on why they put that particular minister in that position would be more helpfull

  2. What a mistake says:

    I explained to my friends in the OBA that this Minister of Education would be even worst then the previous. Why on Earth would we use one of the Pee L Pee’s former lackeys is beyond the norm when we had so much talent to pull from. Premier Cannonier please consider all the talent next time and stop having weak links.

  3. him says:

    Your premier is himself a weak link !!!

    • What a mistake says:

      How can he be that weak if he beat Paula Cox? Not only did the OBA beat her we took her so called safe feet from her. So who’s weak now? Know wonder she hiding in the same cave Bin Laden was in.

      Next time you want to throw darts, make sure you aim for your a$$ since you ran out of donkeys.