Tooro Education Concern, a local organization interested in promoting education in Rwenzori region, is stuck with several bursaries it introduced last year to support needy students from the region.
The 300 bursaries were to benefits student from Kasese, Kyenjojo, Kamwenge and Bundibugyo district.
The students were expected to apply for the bursaries to study at the Mountain of the Moon University, Uganda Pentecostal University and Fort Portal School of clinical officer.
Tooro Education Concern was to contribute 50% of the tuition fees while the student meets the rest of the tuition fees. However, since the bursaries were announced last year, only 5 students have applied for the bursaries.
William Gonza, the secretary Tooro Education Concern, says that despite the fact that they have carried sensitization on the availability of the bursaries there is no response.
Gonza however believes that some students could have failed to apply for the bursaries because they are too poor to afford half of the fees.
//Cue in: ithere was one problem#i
Cue out: i#university education seems to be very expensive.i//
He says the bursaries were also aimed at encouraging students to study from universities in their region because it is not expensive.
Gonza says that the higher institutions of learning in the region have been neglected by students who hail from the region.
//Cue in: iwe are also looking at#i
Cue out: i#these institutions owned by their own people.i//
Robert Tumusime who applied for the bursary but later abandoned it says that the universities in the region were not offering a course of his choice.
Tumusime says that Tooro Education Concern should know the courses that students are interested in before they give out bursaries.
Victoria Rusoke, the Kabarole District Education Officer says she is not surprised students have shunned the bursaries.
Rusoke says that parents and students doubt the academic standards of some of the private universities that are established upcountry.
She says as a result of this, parents send their children to prominent universities, although the tuition fees are high.
