Scholarships oh scholarships

It's that time of the year again.. When almost those who were rejected by PSD for scholarships cried foul of the system. Who can blame them? They have worked so hard for their SPM exams and yet the prestigious scholarship eluded them. No amount of explaination will help them understand that they were not entitled to the scholarships.

I remember two years ago when my son was granted a scholarship to study abroad. He felt so guilty that two of his close friends did not get them. Especially when their results were better than his. He had no other explaination except that he had done better than them during the interviews.My son deserves the scholarship. He scored 5 As for UPSR, 8 As for PMR and 10 As for his SPM. What my son gets is not actually a scholarship. It is a convertible study loan. If he does very well in his studies, the loan will be converted to scholarship.

I think the government should give out convertible loans instead of scholarships. Only students who have the determination to do well in their studies will not be put off by the conditions set by the sponsors. Then we will see less of these bright students applying for loans since they have to pay back if they do not do well in their studies. And for information, the PSD scholarships are actually for studying locally first, in preparation for future studies abroad. Those who do not meet the sponsors' requirement will not be sent abroad. Normally, very few were left behind.

The government perhaps has considered not to send every top students abroad. Some were offered to study locally so as to improve the standards of education in the local universities. We heard often enough from some politicians that the standard of education in the local universities is lower than expected. So without us realising it, that was what the government is doing ...not to send every bright student abroad.

There are of course other scholarships being offered by other sponsors. Asean scholarships, STAR Education funds, Sime Darby, Petronas, Bank Negara etc. If these students are very good as they claimed, I'm sure they have no problems in getting other scholarships since the requirement for other scholarships are much stricter/higher than the PSD scholarships.