Solomon Islands government students studying in Divine Word University (DWU) in Madang Papua New Guinea are calling on the government to release their allowance for the first semester of this year.
In a statement yesterday the study body Solomon Islands Students Association (SISA) based in DWU said, the Education Ministry through the National Training Unit (NTU) must facilitate the payment soon because its nearly two months now since lectures have kicked off.
“We call on the Solomon Islands Government especially the ministry of education and finance to facilitate our allowances sooner the better,’’ SISA said.
It is ridiculous for government to release allowances for government- sponsored students at Laucala campus in Fiji while DWU students is delay, the statement said.
“If USP students in Laucala Campus in Fiji got their full allowances for February and March then why delay DWU students because we eat from the same cake as such it raises more questions than answers,” SISA DWU said.
The statement said, SISA understands that in the Education budget, there is allocation for students’ allowances studying in various institutions in the region.
“We need our allowances to cater for stationeries for us to use and other provisions we need during our study this year.
“We’re now in seven weeks of lecture and still waiting for our allowances and politics must not creep in to our affairs of delaying our allowance for this semester,” SISA said.
The students said they received a response from NTU office regarding the allowance issue via email a week ago which stated that allowances been processed and they would update us.
“NTU office says, it will raise the payments with the Ministry of Finance to ensure the allowances are released.
“However several emails send to them last week for further update was remain futile,” the statement said.
