A Case for Financial Assistance to Needy Students of the University of Education, Winneba

Abstract

The plight of needy students in the tertiary education environment, particularly, the College of Agriculture Education of the University of Education, Winneba is very deplorable. This is so because such students are unable to cater for their basic needs such as paying for a decent accommodation, paying fees on time and getting money to feed on regular basis. In the light of this, one can only suggest that the University authorities have to set up a fund, purposely for the upkeep of identified needy students within its ranks. On this score, it should be noted that the University of Education, Winneba is not oblivious of the disadvantaged nature of some of its students since a few have been assisted in the past through the Vodafone, MasterCard and Carnegie scholarships. However, something concrete needs to be done in that direction.

In this paper, an argument has been made to detach the word ‘brilliant' from the phrase ‘needy but brilliant', since, it is no more tenable to hold on to that cliché. Rather, right from the word go, the University should make conscious efforts to identify needy students who obviously possess the basic competences to study in a tertiary education environment and more importantly, one's brilliance would only be sustained if the required atmosphere is available. Reasons had been assigned and it is prudent that students who are found to be needy should be given financial assistance from the proposed Needy Students' Fund, as is being done in sister tertiary institutions.