After the students of the Ecole Supérieure Polytechnique who took to the streets in the middle of the week, it is now the turn of those of the University of Ankatso to claim four months of unpaid scholarships. A problem that comes up every year. The digitization of data at university level, which began last year, should facilitate this payment of scholarships.
with our correspondent in Antananarivo, Laetitia Bezain
In front of the Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences of the University of Ankatso, none of the students present has received their scholarship since the start of the school year in November.
However, there is urgency, explains Tafita, in the first year of Master. ” We are all tired of waiting. It’s normal if the students demonstrate because the prices of foodstuffs keep going up and we can’t get out of it. Me, I have to use the same notebook for several subjects because I can’t afford to buy enough. »
Grants of between 25,000 and 40,000 ariary per month depending on the year of study, i.e. between 6 and 9 euros. Jean-Aimé, in 3rd year of physics is one of the students who received their card e-poketra, an electronic purse that allows you to withdraw your allowance from a distributor. A device that was to help solve the problem of payment of scholarships.
” We have this card but there’s no money on it and we’ve been waiting for four months, continues the young man. We have to borrow money left and right and I’m so in debt. We deprive ourselves of many things. When I go to the market, I buy rice and some garden herbs. It’s just to fill your stomach. Vegetables are very expensive and I never eat meat. We always have to demonstrate so that the State pays our scholarships but normally, we shouldn’t have to claim. »
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A source within the Ministry of Higher Education assures that funds for the payment of scholarships are available. But procedures, in particular the verification of possible duplicates, are in progress to release the amounts on the cards distributed to the students.
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