Students hold protest over scholarship payments

A GROUP of university students who say they have not received scholarship payments for months held a protest outside government departments in Lefkoşa to make their voices heard.

The students and their families gathered in front of the National Education and Culture Ministry and walked to the Finance Ministry.

During the protest, organised by the Left Youth group, it was stated that the students have been “victimised” because they have not been paid their scholarship allowances.

The protesters chanted “Where are our scholarships?’ and opened banners reading “While our children are waiting for their scholarships, your children get 17,000TL”.

During the protest it was pointed out that student scholarships “are a legal right” and they “must be paid on time”.

A statement from Left Youth said that they had been told that the “support” and “success” scholarship grants had been stopped due to the effects of the Covid19 pandemic.

The last payments under the scheme were made in January, the statement added, a situation that had caused “various grievances”.

Higher Education and Foreign Relations Department director Ziya Öztürkler said that the government is trying to do its best under “pandemic conditions” to pay the scholarships.

Mr Öztürkler noted that even though payments have not been made regularly due to the difficult economic circumstances, 50 million TL in higher education scholarships had been paid to young people in one year.

Mr Öztürkler also stated that the National Education and Culture ministry was “not negligent” and had “caused no delay” regarding the scholarships.

In his statement on social media, Mr Öztürkler said that he “greatly desires young people to receive their scholarship allowances on time” and reminded them that the Education and Culture Ministry receives the applications and prepares the expenditure documents, but that the Finance Ministry is responsible for making the funds available.