Ministry of Education seeks to clarify scholarship changes

As a clarification and in response to Saturday’s Royal Gazette article regarding the Bermuda Government Scholarship, the Ministry of Education offered the following.

First and foremost, the Ministry stressed that the proposed legislation is not about reducing scholarship funding for students of financial need.

A Ministry spokeswoman said today, “The Ministry is concerned that Saturday’s story as written is very misleading to the public, particularly as it relates to the capping of the scholarship at $250K per year.

“The public should be clear about the fact that the Bermuda Government Scholarship is presently uncapped and most importantly is an academic scholarship and not needs based.

“At present how the scholarship works is that whatever the educational costs are for the student, is what the Ministry is obligated to cover.

“As a note, in 2012, the Ministry spent in the region of $900K for the Scholarship.

“What is equally concerning regarding the article is that the main point has been missed - that is that there have been eight (8) recipients per year for the last three (3) years.

“Therefore, 24 students are funded annually before any such consideration is even given towards funding recipients for the present year.

“Therefore, if all 24 students were at a cost of $74K, then before even adding the 8 for the present year the Ministry would be paying $1.7M to support the present recipients. In total the Ministry could be carrying 32 students with varying financial requirements in any given year.

“To be clear, what is being proposed with the legislative amendments is to cap the scholarship amount to $35K per year. The present recipients will not be impacted, just those from this year forward.

“Therefore, over time, the total expenditure to the Ministry in any given year would be no more than $1.1M.”

Finally, the Ministry is reminding the public that the Bermuda Government Scholarship has been around for decades and has always been a merit-based academic scholarship.

Furthermore the statement within the article that... “New legislation tabled in the House of Assembly today will put a ceiling of $35,000 on each of eight grants awarded annually to academically brilliant Bermudians who cannot afford to pursue higher education overseas”... is factually inaccurate and misleading. 

Regretablly, this leaves the public with the impression that the Government is reducing Bermuda Government Scholarship funding for students who would otherwise be unable to attend university.

It should be pointed out that the Board of Education who recommends to the Minister of Education candidates for receipt of Bermuda Government Scholarships does not consider family income or financial need. 

Additionally, the Minister of Education who awards the Bermuda Government Scholarship upon the recommendation of the Board of Education does not consider financial need in awarding the Bermuda Government Scholarship.

Again, the Ministry reiterated that the proposed legislation is not reducing scholarship funding for students of financial need.