Africa-Press – Mozambique. The Institute of Scholarships (IBE) announced yesterday that plane tickets would be supplied to Mozambican students selected for places at the International University of Afro-Brazilian Lusofonia (UNILAB) to travel this Sunday (11) to Brazil, Notícias reports.
According to the same source, “the students, who should have travelled days ago, were protesting at that institution (the Institute of Scholarships), due to a misunderstanding about the responsibilities regarding the flight costs for each scholarship holder”.
The plane tickets, financed by the Mozambican Insurance Company (EMOSE), will allow the students to arrive before the start of the academic year, scheduled for the 15th of this month, according to a statement sent to Notícias.
The note cited by Notícias clarifies that the 36 students – there were 39 but three have dropped out – are holders of scholarships from UNILAB, and not from IBE, an institution that only acts as an intermediary in the process, having facilitated with EMOSE the sourcing of the financing necessary for the trip.
The document also states that the IBE regrets the inconvenience caused to those selected by UNILAB, who since February 3rd have camped outside the institution’s facilities as a way of pressuring the institution to pay for their tickets to Brazil.
“We cannot fail to mention that this oversight was completely wrong, but capitalised on by some entities and individuals with unacceptable objectives, because at no time were these entities and individuals concerned about the reasonableness of the demands (of the students), or with guaranteeing the students’ health and safety, much less in securing tickets for their trip to Brazil,” the IBE statement reads.
The IBE guarantees that the schedule envisaged ensures the arrival of the 36 students in time for the February 15th start of the academic year at UNILAB, thus confounding any speculation about the threat of loss of scholarships due to delays.
The departure of the scholarship students represents their recent martyrdom, which left them feeling abandoned and deceived by the state, on account of their not having the funds to finance their plane tickets to Brazil.
The students spent three days in the open, outside of the Scholarship Institute, which created some public outrage, but that institution denied all accusations of lack of transparency and communication, reiterating that the group the holders of UNILAB, and not IBE scholarships.
The Director of the Institute of Scholarships (IBE), Carla Caomba, said this week that the students were selected directly by UNILAB through a competition to participate in the institution’s own training program.
Caomba said that the IBE could not at the moment cover the students’ travel expenses because, given the country’s current socio-economic situation and the associated challenges, the institution has suffered a significant cut in its financing.
Currently, there are 144 holders of IBE scholarships in Brazil, selected within the framework of its partnership with the International University of Afro-Brazilian Lusofonia (UNILAB)
Overall, the Mozambican Scholarships Institute has 3,584 scholarship holders, inside and outside Mozambique.
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