St Kitts & Nevis: Mark Brantley encourages students to apply for overseas education scholarships

Basseterre: Minister of Foreign Affairs and Aviation of St Kitts and Nevis and Premier of Nevis, Mark Brantley encouraged the students to obtain the benefit of international scholarships while addressing the general public via Tea Radio Programme. He noted that the government had secured numerous overseas scholarships in countries such as – Taiwan, Serbia, and Turkey via their bilateral ties, of which the students must take benefit.

Following the above statement, he highlighted that earlier this month; notices were issued encouraging the young population to step up and take advantage of the different scholarships in the countries as mentioned above, noting the number of applications is disappointing.

Brantley then underscored, several of the students who are not economically stable take education loans to pursue their study, which further puts them into debt; for them, scholarship is the perfect path to complete their education.

“A lot of us go and borrow huge sums of money and place our families in massive debt and expenditure to receive an education that if you looked carefully might well be accessible somewhere for free,” the minister asserted, noting that getting graduate or post-graduate from the foreign countries assists one to develop a better understanding level as well as get to know about different cultures, people and languages.

As per the views of the minister, it does not matter from where one individual completes their education; what counts and is vital is how they utilise their received education in their daily lives.

Concluding his statement on the matter, he added, “I cannot stress enough how essential that is in today’s world to make you more competitive, to make you more appealing to an employer. For instance, being able to say ‘I speak fluent Mandarin’ is a wonderful thing. It indicates that if that businessman is doing business with China or Taiwan, you become a wonderful advantage to them”.