LASU Scholarship Offer

[Richard Akindele]

WITH the recent award of scholarship to 144 students, the Lagos State University (LASU) has rekindled an old but latent culture in the country.

The scholarship, according to the school authorities, is for students with Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) of 4.0 and above. All the awardees went home with a cheque for N20,000 plus free tuition throughout the duration of their programmes provided they maintain their CGPA of 4.0 and above.

The LASU gesture, commendable and edifying, brings to remembrance an old order. In the 60s, 70s and early 80s, there was a healthy scholarship culture among communities, schools and corporate organizations which promoted academic excellence and healthy competition among students in secondary and tertiary institutions.

That culture of promoting academic excellence via scholarship is unfortunately dying, so also is the standard of education in the country.

We recall that at a time in this country the government introduced a loan scheme which indigent but brilliant students could access to finance their education. That scheme was, however, abused as many students borrowed money but failed to pay back. It was subsequently rested.

In those days when schools and the government evolved and sustained a tradition of rewarding academic excellence with scholarships, standard of education in the country was sky high. This was so because it spurred students to study hard and imbibe the noble core value of hardwork as a pre-condition for receiving such scholarship.

The same cannot be said of our schools today, and even the government. The culture of rewarding brilliance with scholarship is fading inexorably. This is why the LASU example should serve as a wake up call for a national scholarship renaissance.

Many nations have elevated the award of scholarship to brilliant students to a national culture such that schools in these countries deliberately seek out such gifted students and woo them with scholarship irrespective of their nationalities.

Nigeria's Philip Emeagwali, by far one of the most celebrated computer scientists of our time, was only a 14-year-old lad in Nigeria when Oregon University of the United States lured him out of the country with a scholarship. Emeagwali had then topped the grade in the highly competitive aptitude examination for foreign students.

That gesture by Oregon University laid the solid foundation for academic excellence for the young Nigerian who dropped out of school in Nigeria because his parents could not pay his school fees. And in spite of his brilliance, neither the government nor the school deemed it necessary to award him scholarship.

It took an American University to do so. Today, Emeagwali lives and works in the US, contributing in good measure to the development of that country's economy.

In the early life of this administration, the idea of reviving the scholarship culture was mooted. To date, it has remained just an idea waiting to be actuated. This is not good enough. The federal and state governments must revive their respective scholarship boards. Ditto for all tertiary institutions.

The nation's brightest and the best should be encouraged with scholarships and fellowships. This is a sure way to shore up the dipping standard of education. If we evolve a healthy and transparent scholarship culture, shorn of nepotism and sundry primordial considerations, students would study hard to be numbered among the beneficiaries. This would significantly dissuade many from the path of cultism, rape, drug abuse and other vices that easily beset an idle mind.

The nation must begin to compete globally in order to delist herself from the notorious club of countries with poorly equipped institutions and therefore worthless certificates.

LASU has pointed the way to go. We urge other institutions which have hitherto kept the issue of scholarship at low-key to rekindle the fire once again. It must be raised to a level of national consciousness with governments, federal and state, as torch-bearers.

Democracy must translate to development. A sure way to fast-track such development is to empower the people through good education. But how can the people, though brilliant and bright, access education if they do not have the means? There is only one way out of the bind: a sustained national scholarship culture. We urge the government, schools and corporate organizations to rise to this challenge. The world's eighth largest exporter of crude oil can afford many good things including scholarships for her bright children.

Daily Champion.