Governmental Scholarships or Student grants are by far the ultimate goal of every Bahraini Student who is doomed to grasp his or her education from within the classes of our public schools, learning by heart one page after the other of the books of an outdated curriculum only to slurp it on the exam paper and forget it shortly afterwards.

News were our today, a big day for the youth of this country, BD 7.7 Million is the total cost of 1,716 scholarship and grant (Details by AlWasat, here and here) Averaging a little short of BD 4,500 per student (BD 4,500 -Around $12K- for an average study period of 3 years, now that is pretty darn cheap education.)

As to what I know, scholarships are supposed to be given out to students in uncommon and needed majors that aren’t offered by the local universities but are required within the local job market. This is apparently not the case here in Bahrain, the focus is being drawn on the number of the grants and scholarships, repeated up to 3 times on different pages of the very same newspaper as if it was a huge accomplishment that is really ought not to be forgotten but be proud of and cherished.

%90 of the scholarships are for the most common majors within the University of Bahrain, which is not only already supported by the government but has recently lowered it’s fees to be within the reach of the majority of the people of Bahrain (and with all fairness, it is). It’s not really a matter of where the it is the student is being sent of education even though that the UK was ruled out and not a single grant or scholarship was offered there but substituted with New Zeland for ambiguous reason.

But it is a matter of a future of those youngsters who are supposed to be the cream of the crop of you may, a quick glance on the scholarships is enough to give you butterflies in your stomach. 15 Scholarships in Islamic Sharia, 1 in Art and Porcelain, others are degrees in Office Management, and the list goes on to include Domestic Studies and Sociology.

Is this how we reward the outstanding students! By offering them scholarships in local universities or send them all the way to the other side of the world to study Office Management and come back to work as a secretary.

And what about the rest of the students, who for whatever reason did not reach the required accumulated average of 90% in high school? Those who didn’t take things as serious enough as their friends, what happens to them? Just because you are a B student (who are the majority) you are nothing but a figure at some statistic thrown or lost between the drawers in some ministry.

Those 7.7 Million Dinars were ought to be invested correctly, what they fail to understand that this not another publicity stunt that should be used to calm most people who are outraged by this nonsense. Those are people lives and futures on the line here, this is what they were aiming for years now.

Has anybody ever heard of “Student Loans” or “Governmental Backed Student Fund”?