University of the West Indies (UWI) students who have been waiting on promised bursaries from Government to help pay their tuition fees will get the needed money after all.
It was confirmed today, seven months after Minister of Education Ronald Jones made the promise, that Cabinet had approved $3 million for tuition support for the 2014/2015 academic year.
In a statement issued through the Government Information Service this evening, the Ministry of Education said the approval was given at yesterday’s Cabinet meeting.
Education Minister Ronald Jones
“The Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation will in the shortest possible time communicate with those students whose applications were successful, as well as with the UWI,” he said.
“The ministry welcomes this intervention and regrets the length of time taken to conclude this matter.”
Minister Jones had announced since July 2014 that with Government no longer paying the tuition portion of the UWI bill for Barbadian students, the administration would provide about 3,000 bursaries to assist those who could not afford to pay.
However, the monies were not forthcoming by the start of the academic year which began last September.
Government, and Jones in particular, had been blasted for not coming through for the students, with president of the Guild of Students at UWI’s Cave Hill Campus Damani Parris and Opposition spokesman on education Edmund Hinkson among the main critics.