Kaduna State Scholarship and Loans Board has said that two female candidates came tops out of the 29 First Class degree holders that were awarded scholarship, under the Merit Based Foreign Scholarship scheme.
A statement signed by the Executive Secretary of the Board, Malam Hassan Rilwan revealed that Amina Sani Bello and HalimaAlhafizAliyu came first and second respectively.
According to Malam Hassan, “41 applicants comprising 29 first class degree holders, six Masters degree holders with distinction, five second class (upper division) degree holders with CGPA of 4.0 and above, and one undergraduate student made list of the Merit Based Foreign Scholarship.”
The statement said that out of the 138 that applied for the scholarship, “96 applicants passed the Use of English and Plagiarism cut-off mark of 50 and less than 25 respectively.
“Each of the 96 applicants was officially contacted and requested to upload a personal statement and three minutes video clip,” Hassan said, adding that 54 applicants passed the evaluation.
The Executive Secretary said that the management and staff of the Board were not part of the final scoring and selection process, after short listing the candidates, as part of the Board’s transparency and open governance policy.
“Consequently, the Management set up a team of individuals who have the experience, track record of diligence and objectivity devoid of sentiments to form a Selection Committee.
The Executive Secretary further said that each applicant was scored online by at least three committee members and their final score averaged.
Malam Hassan recalled that Governor Nasir El Rufai had promised that all qualified first class graduates from the state would be sponsored to the best universities in the World.
He pointed out that before the coming of this administration, scholarship award ” was always an under the table discussion preserved for only the privileged.”
“Most of the 138 students would not have known of the opportunity if not for the transparent disposition of the El-Rufai led administration. The process is open, traceable and cannot be manipulated,” he added.
The Executive Secretary, Hassan Rilwan has vowed that under Mallam Nasir El Rufai, “what will get you scholarship and bursary is not who you know but what you know.”
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