The fifty beneficiary students were offered the scholarship to among others, pursue various courses at the country’s public universities.
The initiative according to the MP, is to cushion the students to attain their academic goals.
Madam Linda Ocloo at a brief ceremony at Dodowa to hand over the cheques paid into the accounts of the schools described education as the key to success, adding that she was obliged to provide the needed assistance for her constituents irrespective of the financial shortcomings.
The lawmaker further noted that though adequate funds were not forthcoming to address the recurrent challenges in the educational sector, education was key to national development.
“Education is the key to success,” she said. “If today I am able to become the MP for Shai Osudoku, it’s through education so with or without this, it is my duty to support brilliant but needy students within the constituency."
She expressed regret at the low educational budget for the directorate, adding that the resources were inadequate to address the varying educational needs in the constituency.
She complained: “When you go to the education directorate, you could see that the fund we took is only Ghc15,000 because the funds that came was Ghc 70,000 and looking at the Ghc70,000 we have a lot of projects to take, we have a lot of desks to distribute to students, I mean there’s a lot of schools that need infrastructure, reshaping of the school, we need to refurbish a lot schools so when you look at the funds that come, I mean it doesn’t go anywhere close to what I’m doing now.”
Madam Ocloo disclosed that she relied on personal funds and support from “other sources” to enable her to fund the support scheme for the students, hoping that more students would benefit from the scheme in the future.
This is not the first time the two-term lawmaker is extending such support to students with the firm assurance from her that the latest support would not be the last either.
The students who earlier had been having sleepless nights over how to finance their education were full of praise for the MP for the roll-out of the scheme, adding that a burden has been lifted off their shoulders.
In an interview, the beneficiaries expressed their utmost gratitude to the legislator for the gesture and expressed the hope that more of such support would be extended to more students in the constituency.
NDC constituency chairman Mr Benjamin Manye, also applauded the parliamentarian for her unceasing support to the students over the years.
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Linda Akweley Obenewaah Ocloo, Member of Parliament for Shai Osudoku