African governments have over the years provided scholarships for students studying in universities in Europe, Asia and America. These scholarships are to ensure that these students upgrade themselves and acquire new knowledge and skills.
They are to also study in comfort and not to worry about how to pay for their studies. These government scholarships also require that students’ accommodation and feeding expenses are taken care of, but that appears largely not to be the case.
Local media in Zimbabwe this week have reported that students from that country studying in Russia for instance are “starving” with some female students resorting to prostitution to survive.
The New Zimbabwean.com reported that these students are in distress because the government failed to pay their annual stipends.
One of the students was quoted as saying that “I have proof that lots of girls have resorted to prostitution and when I say proof, I mean actual video footage of some of the girls at night.”
Another students is reported by local media to have said that “We are starving Sir, some of us want to go back home.”
In August this year, local media in Ghana also reported widely about how some Ghanaian students studying in foreign countries on government scholarships were starving.
One of the students told Citi FM that “It is sad that our situation keeps worsening day by day and we are therefore pleading with you, to use your high office to call on our government to come to our aid,” the students implored the Scholarship Secretariat. It is undoubtedly highly difficult to put a 3-square meal on our tables, not to talk of other expenses such as transportation, books and clothing.”
Another student also said “We are faced with a very tough reality of competing with our colleague students from across the globe, who unlike us have sound minds to concentrate on their studies because they receive additional support from their respective governments.”
Many African governments are struggling to mobilize enough revenue to develop their countries and meet other vital needs.
This has made it extremely difficult for them to fulfill such obligations to students they annually sponsor abroad for further studies.
Source: Africafeeds.com
