DUE TO POOR ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE Half of financial aid grantees suspended By ALDWIN R. FAJARDO

Almost half of Northern Marianas students who have been granted financial assistance under the Paul Manglona Scholarship since school year 1991 were suspended from the program, a report from the government disclosed.

However, recipients of the Teachers Scholarship Program, created under Public Law 11-34, performed better. The program has already produced 17 education graduates since 1997, with at least 87 of the total 135 grantees managed to maintain their scholarship.

Government statistics noted that 43 recipients of the Paul Manglona Scholarship, created under Public Law 7-32, have been dropped from the program for failure to comply with grade and credit requirements.

Existing scholarship policies require grant recipients to maintain an average grade of 2.0 and complete 12 credits per semester to qualify for the program for the succeeding semester.

A report from the Scholarship Office showed that 19 students managed to maintain their Paul Manglona Program scholarship until graduation since 1991. At least 29 students under the scholarship program are still in school.

The last time PL 7-32 produced college degree holders was in 1996 when three student-recipients of the program graduated. It has not produced a graduate since then.

PL- 7-32 has been amended by PL 11-77, which Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio approved August last year, capping the benefits awarded to scholars under the program as part of government efforts to stretch the available local resources.

While the government continues to pay for textbooks, tuition, board and lodging, other school fees and a fixed stipend, PL 11-77 limits the amount to be received by each student to $15,000 per academic year.

PL 11-77 applies to all eligible students receiving an annual financial assistance under the Post Secondary Education Scholarship Act. The measure took effect in the Fall 1999 academic year.

On the other hand, only 31 of the 135 recipients of the Teachers Scholarship Program failed to qualify for financial assistance in the succeeding semesters.

But Scholarship Administrator Hilaria K. Santos emphasized that majority of those who have been suspended from the program finished college, and did not actually dropped out of school.

“They don’t drop out of school but were merely suspended from the program. The reason why they were dropped from the scholarship is because they fail to meet the 2.0 grade average and 12-credit requirements,” Ms. Santos pointed out.