Attn: Education Minister, GETFUND Administrator, The Chief of Staff - Did We go, or did We Come?

A few weeks ago, I shared a piece I wrote on how it's nearly impossible for the needy to get the GETFUND Scholarship. My piece attracted so much interest on platforms. Many others shared their personal experiences of how they unsuccessfully tried to get the scholarship for needy family members or wards of deceased friends who are brilliant but needy.

Three of the experiences are quite intriguing. Two out of the three are from my senior colleagues at the Ghana Association of Writers. My write-up has connected me with a few parents. Together, we have become a group of disgruntled parents who are lucky to get the scholarship for our wards. But God knows when the first disbursement will come through. For some of us, our wards are in an "independent public tertiary institution" where the fees are a little above the "normal public universities."

So, even as we are in the second semester of the second year, we are yet to receive any disbursement of the local undergraduate scholarship for our wards. First disbursement is yet to come through even as the second semester of the second year is underway. Whereas those who got approved for overseas programmes in the UK and US in that same year-group had their first year fees paid outright.

Well, as we are left lamenting on our plight, there are many unanswered questions on our minds:

Isn't it mind boggling that, for those studying overseas, the Scholarship Secretariat is able to pay the Tens of Thousands of Pounds and Dollars in no time, and even pay for their air tickets, but takes so long to pay for the local ones in Ghana here?

We went through stress to register for "No Fees Stress Refund" and even opened GCB accounts for that purpose. Sadly, we didn't get the "No Fees Stress Refund" because we have been granted a scholarship. And two years on, first disbursement of the so-called scholarship is yet to come through.

As a group of disgruntled parents of GETFUND Scholarship recipients, the question we ask ourselves each day is:

Did we go, or did we come?

For the first semester of the second year (last semester), we thought that having been granted the scholarship, with a copy of the scholarship letter addressed to our respective universities, our wards would be exempted from paying the school fees. But guess what! The university said:

Hell NO! You have to pay your fees in order to be able to enroll for the semester because the scholarship Secretariat takes forever to pay.

Every day, a member of the team would call me to ask: "What are we doing?" Yes, what are we doing?? Some are telling me to write on the matter. But who am I to write? The Pen at Risk!

Mahama, Veep share laughs after Minority presents cocoa pods in Parliament