16,000 Students to Benefit From Hope Scholarship Challenge Competition

By Cliff Ekuful And Allia Noshie

Sixteen thousand students who complete their second cycle education between 2019 and 2029 are expected to benefit from the Hope Scholarship Challenge competition to enable them continue with tertiary education.

The challenge which is an initiative of the Black Santa, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) based in Accra will among other things pay for both school and accommodation fee of brilliant but needy students through a competitive selection process.

It is expected that, students from across all the 10 regions of the country will get the chance to participate in the competition and benefit from it come next academic year.

The Chief Executive Officer, Black Santa which is a subsidiary of Global Icons Agency, Mr Daniel Austin said this at the official launch of the Challenge in Accra yesterday.

Mr Austin said that, successive governments have played their roles in making education more accessible as possible therefore the need for other individuals and organisations to provide opportunities for young people to further their education.

According to him, there had been improvement in school education leading to most students accessing at least secondary education.

In spite of this, there still remained a challenge in the educational sector as most students are not able to further their education to the tertiary level due to the lack of financial support.

"Financial constraints crush the dreams of many young people," he emphasised.

He therefore, explained that the initiative would guarantee every child the opportunity to learn with proper educational resources.

The Chairman for the event Mr Edem Adimado said, the competition would be in four parts and would be based on general knowledge questions, critical thinking, mathematics and fill in gaps.

He said as part of the beneficiary criteria, persons who apply in the challenge would attain a Grade Point Average of 3.0 and above in order to be maintained on the scholarship.

In addition the awardees would have to be of good conduct and behaviour and must not be involved in any gang activities while on the scholarship.

To ensure the transparency of the entire process, he said the agency would publish on regular basis the result of all who participate in the completion.

Mr Adimado added that, each student would be awarded a grant of between GH¢13,500 and 18,000 upon evidence of admission any accredited tertiary institution.

As part of the modalities, application would be opened from January next year, however, submission would end on May 30.

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