Students who are undergoing higher education abroad, through a scholarship sponsored by the Angolan Government, but who do not attend classes in order to dedicate themselves to other occupations, might be the target of criminal proceedings, according to the general director by INAGBE, Milton Chivela
Without specifying the number of students who are in these conditions, the director of the National Institute for Scholarship Management (INAGBE) recently revealed, in an interview with ANGOP, that a report on the reality is being completed.
However, due to the fact that master’s and doctoral fellows were involved in this process, Milton Chivela considered the situation worrying. Because of this, the person in charge also regretted the fact that, during the last year, the scholarship holders opted for a tourist trip rather than an academic one, as, he added, there are cases of students who, throughout the previous academic year, were not in classroom, but received the appropriate subsidies.
“As soon as we have the numbers, in addition to presenting them publicly, we will, effectively, open a case once morest these citizens who, in some way, benefited from the treasury and did not fulfill their responsibilities”, revealed the manager. Regarding the sanctions that can be applied to these scholarship holders, Milton Chivela guaranteed that the first will involve the cancellation of the scholarship, and, following that, possible criminal liability, if the situation presents itself with this need.
“First is the immediate cancellation of the scholarship, and, if we want to go further, so that these attitudes are not repeated, we will hold these students criminally responsible from now on”, he threatened, and then clarified that “the regulations establish that the student receives when he is in training”. The general director of this institution explained that the reality is due to the fact that control of students abroad is only carried out at the end of the academic year through proof of life, which allows them to receive the amount to remain in those countries of training. .
However, he stressed that students running away from classes happens more frequently in Portugal, a country which, he said, currently has the largest number of scholarship holders. For Milton Chivela, the situations that he classified as “less good” should awaken the need to find the best mechanisms to control these students, abroad.
There are good examples
When making a general assessment of the level of student achievement abroad, the general director of INAGBE said that, recently, on a service mission in Hungary, he witnessed the awarding of prizes to the best students of the previous year, including two Angolans. “Only 10 students were awarded the title of excellence, of which two were Angolan, one studying medicine and the other mechanical engineering.
In Serbia, in the academic year just ended, only seven students had merit and two of these were Angolan”, he pointed out. Therefore, Milton Chivela understands that there are good examples of students who are actually achieving success and who are meeting the expectations that were placed on them when the respective scholarships were awarded.
