A total of 24 students of Bayelsa origin on scholarship to Malaysia, have returned home with first degrees in various fields of study.
The Commissioner for Education, Chief Adikumo Salo and the Chairman, State Scholarship Board, Mr Foster Ogola, received the graduates at the Isaac Boro Peace Park, Port Harcourt, on Thursday night.
In a speech, the commissioner described their performance as excellent.
He expressed the hope that their performance would encourage the state government to use the scholarship scheme to promote education and human capital development.
The commissioner restated the government’s commitment to the training and re-training of its citizens, saying that Gov. Seriake Dickson’s N1 billion scholarship scheme for more than 350 post-graduate students was on course.
He promised that in less than a year, another batch of post-graduate students now in the United Kingdom would return home.
Responding to a question, Ogola said that the board would improve on its strategy to enlist more students in the scholarship scheme in 2013.
He described the pass rate of the students as the highest in Malaysia in comparison to 12 countries that sent their nationals to the Asian nation for acquisition of academic knowledge.
Ogola said the students would be received, formally, by Dickson on a date to be announced soon.
NAN recalls that the students were sponsored by the administration of Timipre Silva to undertake studies in various disciplines.
Five out of the 24 students graduated in first class division with four in Software Engineering and one in Civil Engineering. (NAN)