As undergraduate students from all over the federation brace up for aptitude test leading to the award of this year’s federal government undergraduate scholarship grant, many issues surrounding its organization and modus operandi need attention and action if something different from previous years is to be obtained.

Last year’s process cannot be termed lesser than a sham if one is to use normal standard of measurement compared to other scholarship awarding institutions procedures only; right from the accreditation up to the test in Kano State and by extension all over the federation, it’s simply nothing to write home about.

If the disorganization was only noticeable in the procedure it might be forgiven but also been vivid in logistics is unpardonable; for instance, many students were forced to write their aptitude test in foolscap papers after many hours of waiting. And the most amazing part is that very few students were selected apparently randomly for the awards at the end.

One can only wonder if a small organization could conduct a successful merit based aptitude test why can’t a bigger federal government project do better or just ‘copy and paste’.

Shortcomings are glaring right from its website which is not secured and lack in requirements of a standard scholarship portal; for instance, if one forget his/her password, no reset menu to retrieve such.

If we should expect something different, I am of the view that there is no harm but a lot to gain if clues can be gotten from other scholarship awarding institutions like Shell, Total and NNPC to mention but a few on how a standard scholarship aptitude test can be conducted successfully.

Even the aptitude test can be conducted in various higher institutions of the applicants instead of gathering them in one location that can neither accommodate them even if the logistics is perfect nor conducive enough for such exercise.

Wishing this year’s applicants best of luck and strength.

Imran Abdullahi
Founder of FandFng
Co-founder SFE Nigeria

For the full article: https://medium.com/@imranabdullahi/ea3ad484aeef