Akosombo, Two months after gaining admission into the Keta Nursing and Midwifery Training College, Ernestina Dzakumah, the last of nine children, feared she may not be able to accomplish her dream of becoming the first nurse in her family due to financial difficulties.
Her father, a retired driver, and her mother, a seamstress, did not have the wherewithal to finance her education.
Supports from her brother is also not sufficient to fund her education, leaving her hoping against hope.
After managing to pay her fees in the first year, Ms Dzakumah said she had no hope of completing her three-year Diploma Programme because her brother could no longer afford her fees.
At the point where she contemplated dropping out of school, her father, through the recommendation of a friend, applied for the Volta River Authority’s (VRA)Community Development Programme (CDP) Education Scheme, an initiative that seeks to provide scholarship for brilliant but needy students at the tertiary education level.
Ms Dzakumah was successful in her application and was offered a full scholarship by VRA, a gesture, she said, had brought relief to her family.
She is among 60 other beneficiaries who have been offered full scholarships by VRA to pursue various programmes in public tertiary institutions across the country.
The scholarship worth GHS800,000 covers the payment of their tuition and hostel fees.
The beneficiaries were drawn from the communities impacted by the VRA’s operations – Akosombo, Akuse, Kpone, and Aboadze areas.
Speaking at a ceremony at Akosombo in the Eastern Region on Tuesday, March 22, 2022, Mr Emmanuel Antwi-Darkwa, the Chief Executive, VRA, said
the Authority’s Education Scheme sought to support the development of human resources in its impacted communities.
He said the Authority was confident that through the scheme, the beneficiaries would contribute to the sustainability and developmental programmes in their communities, and the nation as a whole.
Mr Antwi-Darkwa said some 329 students had benefited from the scholarship Scheme since it’s inception in 2011.
“Out of the number, 234 students were sponsored at the secondary level prior to the introduction of the Government of Ghana’s Free SHS Program, and 95 students at the tertiary education level. Out of those sponsored at the tertiary level, 77 have completed successfully while 18 are still in school,” he said.
Mr Antwi- Darkwa said the VRA placed emphasis on applicants offering courses in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM) as a way of encouraging more of the youth from the impacted communities to be in line for job offers in the Authority.
He encouraged the students to exhibit good academic performance and take advantage of the opportunity offered them to make the difference in their respective communities.
In a speech read on his behalf, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, Minister of Education, commended VRA for supporting efforts by the government to boost access to quality education towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
He said the Government was undertaking cutting-edge policies to achieve its objective of the 60-40 science-humanities ratio enrolment in Senior High Schools (SHSs) as part of its transformation agenda.
“Government is undertaking the construction of eight (8) module
STEM high schools and 20 STEM centres across the country, which are all at
various stages of completion, together with the construction of the Accra STEM
Academy, as part of the pragmatic steps being undertaken by Government to
promote the advancement of science and technology education in Ghana,” he said.
Source: Ghana News Agency
