Students to return from China after grants not paid

The Madagascan government will repatriate some of the students who have been studying in China but have not received their grants for 16 months or more, the Higher Education Ministry has announced.

The deadline fell on 20 June for settlement of student debts that have been mounting, reported Midi Madagasikara.

Madagascan students have faced increasing hardship without their grants, with many having to ask their families to send them funds, and there have been reports that some even turned to prostitution. Government undertakings to pay up have so far not been fulfilled.

As the 20 June deadline approached, the students, who were studying in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, travelled to the Madagascar embassy in Beijing to try to see the ambassador, Victor Sikonina, reported Madagate.

He refused to talk to them, and after a message that he was “not there to sweep up shit”, the students at 2am took up the offer of two sympathetic embassy counsellors to stay at a hotel and to meet them the next day.

It was then agreed that official approaches would be strengthened to ask the Chinese authorities and universities to allow the students to stay and continue their studies, and that a letter would be sent to the Madagascan Ministry of Finance and Budget and other authorities to ask for a date the back payments would be paid.

But the deadline passed without further development, until last weekend when the Madagascan ministry of higher education announced that some students would be repatriated, reported Midi Madagasikara.

First would be those with the poorest results who had had to repeat courses, said a ministry official. Next would be those following studies that were available back home – such as those studying Chinese language and culture, as such courses were on offer at the Confucius Institute in Madagascar.

The authorities were currently identifying which students were liable to be sent home, said Midi Madagasikara, which reported that the Madagascar government had to find at least 1.4 billion ariary (US$640,000) just for back payments owed for rent and study expenses of the students in China.

* This article is drawn from local media. University World News cannot vouch for the accuracy of the original reports.