The dreams of a 19-year-old brilliant student on government scholarship may soon vanish into thin air as his mother who is visually impaired is struggling to secure funds from the Scholarship Secretariat to pay her son’s school fees.
Jonah Waadi Hagan who wants to be a laywer in future was awarded a government scholarship based on grounds of hardship in the 2013/2014 academic year to enable him complete his education at the Pope Johns Senior High School in Koforidua in the Eastern.
But the secretariat is yet to help him in this regard.
Gladys Waadi Talaata, 43-year-old visually impaired woman who hails from Tongo in the Talensi District of the Upper East Region complained bitterly to Citi News about her ordeal at the Scholarship secretariat.
They 43-year-old who walks with the aid of a White cane said she has been chasing the scholarship grant for her son for more than two years not but to no avail.
She is worried her son may not have the opportunity to complete SHS if the secretariat continues to delay in releasing the grant.
The helpless visually impaired woman lamented that “the poverty level in the northern region, compelled me to apply for the scholarship for my ward. I got the scholarship for my ward on Hardship grounds during the 2013 /2014 academic year in the second term of his first year at the Pope Johns Senior High School.”
“I have been to the Scholarship Secretariat for over a million times to follow up but it they do not tell me when they are paying the monies. They always tell me they will pay: they will act on it, but I do not see any action of that sought. I do not know what else to do, I just want to know when they are going to pay the monies. I do not know if they need a presidential intervention or what.”
Madam Waadi Talaata shed tears as she poured out her frustrations.
“Payment of my son’s school fees is my biggest problem now. When they are going back to school and you do not pay the feeding fee and other levies, the school authorities do not allow him to step foot in class and the dining hall. Sometimes they harass him and he has been sent out of the exams hall on several occasions. I have been borrowing of monies to look after him. Because I am visually impaired mother my debtors have been lenient with me. All I want them to do is to pay the money so that it will take me out of these hardships I am going through.”
For madam Talaata, the disbursement of the funds for her son’s education will mean the world to her.
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By: Kojo Agyeman/citifmonline.com/Ghana