Clarification from the Ministry of Education

Sir/Madam,

The Scholarship and Student Support Division would like to draw your attention to the article

“Scholarship students will be sent only to third countries to ease rupee outflow” by Sonam Choki of The Bhutanese in the 2nd May 2012 issue where the information have been misinterpreted and the

statistics reflected incorrect and grossly erroneous.

The Division had not made any categorical statement to the effect “the Scholarship and Student Support Division under the Department of Adult and Higher Education of the Ministry of Education has decided not to send any students funded by the government to study in India in order to ease the flow of rupee”, nor have stated “no students will go to study in India under government funding and this

system will be followed hereafter”. The Division has provided the statistics of students studying in India

and third countries on scholarship and their funding schemes. What was said was that out of 232 slots of scholarship for 2012 academic session, 117 are under GOI funding (not 102 as reported by your newspaper) and the rest funded by RGoB, some of whom are placed in India as well as the third countries depending on the nature of the course of study.

The selection interview for Under Graduate Scholarships and decision on the courses and place

of study were already completed in February 2012, much earlier to the emergence of issue of rupee crunch and not as a policy decision taken by the Ministry of Education to control the rupee outflow.

The Division would also like to further clarify that the BSA membership fee is Nu. 1000/ (one thousand) per year per student and not Nu. 10,000/(ten thousand) as reported in the article.

 

Baburam Sherpa 

Chief Programme Officer