IF you are a husband and a father and a good swimmer and you are put in a situation wherein you have to chose who to save—your drowning child or wife—who will you choose?
Board of Education Vice Chairman Roman Benavente said that it has to be the child because “he is weaker and more vulnerable and does not yet have the full chance of experiencing life.”
Benavente, chairman of the Scholarship Advisory Board, likened this situation to the concerns of more than 30 CNMI teachers who enrolled under the master’s education degree offered under the Framingham State College International Education Program being administered by Northern Marianas College.
Recently, the teachers represented by Sonya Jane Olapai-Fegurgur of Dandan Elementary School wrote to Gov. Juan N. Babauta regarding their problem of not getting their full scholarship benefit which they said should have been fully provided to them through the government’s scholarship program.
“We want to support them as much as we could. But the circumstances and some policies have restricted us to do so. We are not saying that they are not a priority but there also many other needs especially by the undergraduates under the school system,” said Benavente in an interview yesterday.
Benavante said the board’s educational assistance program regulations do not allow them to fund summer scholarship programs.
He said scholarship is only allowed to be taken during fall or spring. Benavente said the scholarship fund this year decreased to $3.1 million from last year’s $3.9 million.
Each teacher, he said, is given a scholarship grant of $3,000 every semester. Based on NMC’s estimate, the allowance which covers tuition fee, books, transportation and other expenses are more than enough to address the needs of the teachers.
Benavente said that based on NMC estimates, each scholar only spends an average of $1,900 each semester.
The board scholarship, he said, is now taking steps to rescind and amend the regulations to allow scholars to receive benefits during summer classes.
“We will address this matter and have the Office of the Attorney General review the amendment,” he said.
