Maha Sabha challenges new scholarship system

ATTORNEYS for the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha have written to the Cabinet complaining of the cut in the number of national scholarships and the implementation of a new bursary system.

In a letter to Cabinet secretary Cheryl Hem-Lee on Tuesday, attorney Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, Dinesh Rambally, Stefan Ramkissoon, Kiel Taklalsingh and Rhea Khan said in the past, there was no subjectivity in the process.

It did not previously involve the "discretion of government appointees or functionaries" and was not tainted by "individual predilections, preferences or biases.”

Khan said germane to the Maha Sabha’s intended legal challenge was that several cohorts of students who have recently completed examinations and received results, along with other upcoming cohorts, have arranged their lives so as to achieve the highest grades possible in order to qualify for these scholarships.

She said it was perhaps "a symptom of the arbitrary and capricious" nature of the new system that the ministry had inter alia removed the weightings of the assessment criteria, leaving potential applicants in the dark as to what criteria he/she should focus on.

Khan said it is the Maha Sabha’s position that students would have “acquired a legitimate expectation” to benefit from the previous system.

She said the new policy, which reduced the number of scholarships from 400 to 100, and introduced 500 bursaries, leaves a potential applicant in the dark as to what criteria to focus on.

The letter said the new system gave no guidance on how a student could qualify. She pointed out as an example, a 15 per cent weighting for extracurricular activities/contribution to community or country, but said the document did not specify what activities qualified.

“A striking and troubling feature," she said, was "the deliberate removal and complete absence" of academic performance as a criterion.

While Khan said the new policy may provide “some rationalisation of expenditure” on scholarships, she accused the Cabinet of severely curtailing the merit-based, transparent and objective criteria and replacing them with a “conspicuously vague, irrational and arbitrary methodology of selection.”

She also said the new scheme also stymied CXC’s increased breadth and depth of studies, since students could now be denied tertiary-level funding for non-traditional areas of study.

She described the policy as "mired with ambiguity, internal inconsistency and patent absurdity," "systematically unfair" and reeking of maladministration, and said its "abrupt" introduction constituted a "harsh and oppressive" exercise of power.

The letter also said it was pellucid that macro-economic considerations were not the driving force behind the change, and signalled the Maha Sabha’s intent to file proceedings to have the court quash the Cabinet’s decision to unlawfully replace the previous scholarship system with the bursary system.

The Maha Sabha’s attorneys also asked for clarification on whether the March 11 document was the actual policy or was expected to be amended, and hope to receive an answer by Friday.

Otherwise they will assume it was the final policy and will approach the courts for declarations that it was unlawful, unfair, deprived students of a legitimate expectation to be assessed for scholarships on academic performance, and constituted a harsh, oppressive and unjust dispensation of executive power.

The Maha Sabha called on the Cabinet to retract the policy and reinstate the former system. The Cabinet was given until March 29 to respond to the letter, which was copied to the prime minister and the attorney general.

The Maha Sabha said its legal challenge will benefit all students, not only students of its schools.