Ethnicity is not part of scholarship eligibility – TSLS

The Tertiary Scholarships and Loans Service has clarified that scholarships are given to successful students who meet the eligibility criteria, and gender and ethnicity are not part of the criteria.

This follows a widespread discussion on social media where concerns were raised about majority of recipients reportedly being of i-Taukei ethnicity.

TSLS says i-Taukei students received 6,181 scholarships which is equivalent to 71.05 percent, Fijians of Indian descent students received 2,278 scholarships which is equivalent to 26.18 percent, Rotumans received 74 scholarships, Chinese got 2 scholarships while others received 165 scholarships.

The TSLS says every scheme has its qualifying merit.

They also highlighted that last year, they visited all schools in the maritime areas, including Rotuma, which has led to an increase in the uptake of TVET scholarships.

They say yearly scholarship investment design and planning is not driven or deduced from population distribution based on gender and ethnicity but on the employment demand in the workforce, backed by data, researched information and trend analysis.

TSLS stressed that the growth in the uptake of TVET scholarships should be a highly welcome call, given the loss of skilled labour due to global mobility trends and Fiji’s labour market data is unequivocal that almost 70 percent of the jobs are in TVET fields.

TSLS says interested students and public members had to register first and apply by meeting the eligible criteria and loading other requisites.

There are twelve scholarship schemes, one study loan scheme and three grant schemes.

The data is analysed after successfully awarding scholarships.

Meanwhile, the Fiji Labour Party leader, Mahendra Chaudhry questioned the scholarship figures by stating that the Indo-Fijian community comprised around 33 percent of the population but received only 26 percent of scholarship.

Chaudhry raised that fair access to education is of great importance to all communities.

He says this is not acceptable and it is surprising that MPs from the minority communities did not raise their voice on the matter, including; Professor Biman Prasad, Sashi Kiran and Agni Deo Singh.