Scholarship students failing says Minister

| 28/08/2009

(CNS): The minister for education says he has discovered that some students that are currently on government scholarships are falling way below the minimum standard required to keep their study cash. He said that a number of continuing students had alarmingly low GPAs with some even lower than 1.0, despite the fact that the minimum requirement after the first year of study is 3.0. As a result, Rolston Anglin said the department is about to write to a number of students to warn them that their scholarships are in jeopardy.

With a total record investment of around $9.5 million in scholarships for Cayman students at the moment the Education Department is about to embark on a full review of the entire scholarship process.

Speaking in the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday, the minister said that, aside from the fact that failing students were not being held accountable, the scholarship awards for UCCI were not being prioritised. “There is no distinction between grants to those in need or scholars for whom we can expect and hold accountable for academic standards,” he said. Anglin also noted that the students who were recording low averages had been doing so over the previous year but they had not received any follow up or been sent letters to tell them they needed to improve.

He insisted that the ministry was not cutting funding for any student but he said the department had to ensure students maintain a particular standard or they may not wind up being employable at the appropriate level even after many years of study.

“We must ensure Caymanians realize that excellence is not an option, it is a must,” Anglin said. “It is worrying to learn that some of these underperforming students were previous honour students from John Gray High School. This is not acceptable.”

He said that the problems of understaffing, the outdated criteria for awards, poor communications and other failure painted “a picture of neglect by my predecessor of this important area”, in which millions of dollars was invested.

He said the plan to move things forward included an overhaul of the system and he had established a Scholarship Services Review Committee chaired by Joy Basdeo, which will report to the Education Council in December.  The committee will be revising the criteria for awards; establishing a scholarship secretariat; creating an efficient application and approval process; looking at ways to prioritise the grant of awards towards Cayman’s economic needs; achieve greater collaboration between agencies and other scholarship bodies; a mechanism for recommended institutions and data collection on student performance.  Anglin said it was crucial work which must be done immediately.

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  1. Anonymous says:

    waste of time!

    i have known 2 people to get scholorships taking away in the last year. this is not a major issue. all of us that have scholorships know the deal from the beginning, dont make the grades no scholorship simple. Take it away and let those who make the grades continue, this has turned into a bigger issue than what it needs to be and it stresses us college students out that are overseas passing and trying to make something of ourselves. UDP get your stuff together!

    🙂

  2. Anonymous says:

    Just an FYI… I know for a fact that over the last 3 years many students have lost their scholarships because of poor grades. 

    I see them around town and ask them what is going on… they tell me they are taking time off school… do more research and you’ll find out too that they have lost their funding.

    UDP wants to make it look like this is the first time students have been warned… PPM actually warned and apparently took away scholarships saving the country hundreds of thousands of dollars.

    Rollie wants the glory but sadly he is only publicizing a process that has been in place all along.  Sorry Rollie.

  3. Anonymous says:

    We have a few parents who cry down for help for their child and this is what is happening.

    Shame on the parents too and the ones who can really afford to pay there child school fee.

    Most of the students that are passing are the ones that have to PAY.

     

  4. Anonymous says:

    Interesting! It is obvious that there has been no system of accountability in place to monitor the performance of students receiving scholarships. This is yet another case of total lack of accountability regarding how government funds are spent. This is nothing less than SHAMEFUL!  Is it any wonder that the country is broke?  

    It is high time to cut with the euphemistic and politically correct language. The "some even lower than 1.0" GPA student are FALILING in those classes!  Why not just say that?

  5. Anonymous says:

    Before reaching any conclusions, lets get some basic facts, e.g.

    (1) How many students on Government scholarships are failing to maintain the required GPA and academic standards ? How manu are "some students" ?

    (2) Of these students, how many fell below the standard  in the 2008 – 2009  academic year for the first time ?

    (3) For the students failing to maintain required standards, what percentage of the costs are being met by the Government Scholarships and what were the total scholarship costs in the 2008 – 2009 academic year ?

    (4) What are the total number of students on Gvoernment scholarships and the total costs of these scholarships for the 2008 – 2009 and 2009 – 2010 academic years? 

  6. Anonymous says:

    I am a young CAymanian taking advantage of the Government scholarship. Without it, I would never be able to realize my educational goals. I have a 4.0 GPA and have had so for my entire time under the scholarship. I always turn in my necessary paperwork in a timely manner and yet am always still left calling and begging to find out when my funds will be available for the following semester.

    The people that seem to be running the show in Ministry of Ed obviously are showing "curry favor" because as hard as it is for me, a straight A student, to get funding at the designated times between semesters, I am astonished to hear students with such a low GPA are getting any money at all!!

    For the last fund disbursement (after already having been accepted to receive scholarship funds), I began the paperwork process in May and after numerous phone calls, emails, federal express packages and even having my mother call them, I received my funds only a few days before the new semester in August, leaving my health insurance and overseas rent payment in peril.

    REWARD the young caymanians who are making good use of this privilege not the ones wasting it- send them back to UCCI until they can get their grades back up to a minimum standard of 3.0

    I love my country and I plan to do plenty good with my degree, as I battle for employment with expatriates (but that’s a whole other story).

     

     

  7. Anonymous says:

    Currently a Caymanian student studying overseas. I must first thank the Education Council in granting me the scholarship and I’m proud to say I’ve been on the highest honors ( not Dean’s list) but President’s List. I feel so bad that one bad apple spoils the whole bunch. I’m sure other students are doing exceptionally well but for those who aren’t they need to brush up and consider that its not a favor! One should be grateful because I have students thinking that i’m rich because I’m on a FULL scholarship. I have to explain to them that I need to maintain my grades above 3.0 which currently I hold a 4.0. Again students education is important and opportunities come but once. I think that the review should be done because its unfair to those who really need it and can’t obtain it.  

    • Anonymous says:

      No way to prove this is a real post if you real name isn’t provided.  If you provided a real name, someone could google to see if you really are on the "President’s" list, with a 4.0 you actually should be on the Dean’s list.

      • Anonymous says:

        Why prove to you..some people just too nosy at the end of my semester I will make reference..just keep reading cayman net news or cayman compass…

  8. Anonymous says:

    Good ole Rollie!! Keep up the good work. You can do it.  If someone knows that students are not attending University like they are suppose to do, then maybe that  is why their grades are so low.

    What a crying shame.  There are so many students that want to go to University, but not able to get a scholarship for some reason or the other. With the amount of scholarships that have been give his year, hopeful that situation has changed.

    I know of a brilliant young man who graduated with an Associates degree with honours from UCCI. He applied for a scholarship to go overseas to study for his Bachelor’s degree, and was told that he should study for his degree at UCCI, even though his Lecturers said he should go overseas.

    Good old "Mack" stepped in and got a Hospitality scholarship for him. Now the young man has finished University and has a big time job, and doing well.

  9. Anonymous says:

    According to the LOGB you don’t need education to run the country so maybe we have a large amount of politicians in the making.

  10. Anonymous says:

    Mr. Anglin, congratulations for demonstrating good responsible open governance. 

     

    Mr. Anglin, Government’s commitment to fully educate every educateable brain is an example of good governance investing in our future.

     

    Students with the low grades you know who you are, you have now been duly warned to get serious with your studies, you owe that to every worker in the Cayman Islands, please do not waste this additional chance to change your ways before being told that your scholarship funds are being withdrawn.  Mr. Anglin has been more than fair; the workers of our Islands just cannot afford to pay for wasted scholarships or wasted brains, and you should not waste your brains either, God do’nt make no bad stuff. 

     

    Students, get serious with life, get serious about studies, use this time to alter your life to get the results that will ensure your success, the Cayman Islands needs everyone to pull their own wait and then some extra.  Let us become once again the envy of the world, holding our heads up high doing honest, sustainable international business.

     

    Students, if the academic path is not for you then become a very successful tradesperson, we need them by the thousands. 

     

    Students, above all do what you can do best, and then be the best at what you do.

     

    Students that is your true Caymanian heritage.

     

    Mr. Anglin, please let no one distract you from the path of good honest governance, please let us continue to be able to trust you.

     

  11. Anonymous says:

    The Minister should also look at scholarship students who got the money but are not in the university.  This is happening, i know some.

  12. Anonymous says:

    Why should they study?  We have been telling our children for years the only qualification they need to get a job an expat has is their Caymanian Status…

  13. Anonymous says:

    This is laughable. The government has know for years that many scholarship students have been failing to meet minimum standards. In fact, it has been the ministry that has consistently put pressure on UCCI to keep these students going through the system. Any courses that had to be repeated would be done at the student’s expense.

    In the past, the government has not done a good job of tracking these students- getting grade reports etc. Let’s hope they fill this deficit on their own and don’t leave the onus of tracking on UCCI.

    • Anonymous says:

      It seems the only concern of the previous Ministry was monuments to themselves – buildings and projects they ‘would get credit for’. That our students were allowed to continued in universities with these failing grades is appalling. Poor supervision and lack of focus. Interesting to know who was in charge of monitoring the grades.  Someone should lose their jobs for this – but then maybe they already have.!

      • Anonymous says:

         

        Of course not, they are your Caymanian students… It can’t be true that your Caymanian ministers cared more about their names written on a nice shiny wall plaque that says Georg Town Public Library, or Clifton Hunter Campus than the education of the students so they can get one of the good Caymanian jobs?… has to be a mistake or the doings of one of them treacherous expats…….
    • Anonymous says:

      The government did not had to get grade reports from the students, they were provided by UCCI to the government, as I know was the case with my scholarship.

      The failing is that students dont’ need grades to graduate from high school, so why should they be held to any sort of standard at the next level.  The failing also was in the fact our politicans do not allow UCCI to expel young caymanians, even if they aren’t meeting the standards (even with additional one on one help).  The ultimate failing is on the parents who fail to make their children live up to an sort of decent standard and blame everyone else for their children’s mistakes.  I have seen this in my friends, and can’t believe that parents always side with students, even when caught red handed!

      The point is that the failings are on multiple levels, but on each level the failing occurs becuase politics allow people to continue to fail.  You see it the workforce as well in our Cayman Islands.  Afterall, why should anyone get an education when it isn’t even required for MLA’s….not even a high school education.  Great example!