By Samuel OYADONGHA

Penultimate Wednesday was a day most Bayelsan youths wished for. It was the day 100 students of Bayelsa State origin earlier placed in some choice schools in Abuja, Lagos, Oyo and Ogun states by the former state Governor and now President Goodluck Jonathan under the “Bayelsa Merit Scholarship Scheme,” were brought back to the state having completed their studies.

It was a befitting home coming for the promising youths, who were received by President Jonathan and Governor Seriake Dickson at the Government House Banquet Hall in Yenagoa.

The hall was filled to capacity by elated Bayelsans, including parents and relations of the graduates. It was an auspicious moment for the state government to formally announce the resuscitation of the scheme abandoned by the immediate past administration.

The programme, initiated in September 2006 by Dr. Jonathan, was to enhance the state’s human capacity as it was specifically designed to send brilliant but less privileged students to some of the best secondary schools in the country in order to expose them to their peers in similar institutions and give them the best secondary education available in the country.

President Goodluck Jonathan, Governor of Bayelsa State, Seriake Dickson, his Deputy, John Jonah and the State Education Commissioner Mr. Salo Adikumo pose with beneficiaries of Mr. President’s Scholarship programme at Government House, Yenagoa.

It was a deliberate attempt to develop the human capacity base of Bayelsa indigenes, in order to make them more competitive and dynamic in their search for top quality jobs in the oil and gas industry as well as other sectors of life.

In conceiving the programme, the then governor, Dr. Jonathan, convinced his cabinet that brilliant Bayelsa students should not be left behind because of lack of finance and stressed the need for the creation of three specialized schools in the state.

As such he (Jonathan) established a school for gifted children at Otuoke for those who consistently took first and second positions in the East Senatorial district; another at Sagbama for those who showed special talent in dancing, acting, singing and wrestling for the West Senatorial district and a teachers’ re-training institute at Okordia-Zarama in the Central Senatorial district. The three schools were to be tuition free for Bayelsa state indigenes.

While waiting for the completion of physical structures, his administration went ahead to assemble 100 out of an initial number of 600 pupils who were very good in science subjects and sent them on an orientation tour of France and Germany. By the time they returned, they were sent to renowned schools like Bells International, Turkish International and British International schools amongst others.

The plan, it was learnt was that, by the time the schools would have started, it would admit 75 per cent of Bayelsans and 25 per cent of non Bayelsans and both categories of pupils would enjoy scholarship from the state government. The rationale, it was further learnt, was to promote national integration through competitive education.

The programme was abandoned by the past administration but, the government of Governor Seriake Dickson in a determined effort to restore the lost glory of the educational system of the state, revived the programme again and christened it “Bayelsa Restoration Scholarship Scheme.”

As a way of sustaining the programme, another batch of 200 hundred students would soon be dispatched to schools in Bayelsa and Rivers State. The process for the placement of these students which according to the government includes an orientation programme, had been planned and the process will be all inclusive as the 200 would meet with the earlier 100 who had completed their programmes to exchange ideas of their experiences.

Speaking at an interactive session with the first batch of the beneficiaries of the scheme, President Goodluck Jonathan noted with satisfaction that the policy on human capital development is being sustained by the Dickson administration.

His words, “I saw a vision and it was to change the perception of the nation from the fact that Bayelsa is the headquarters of militancy and to change the fact that most oil companies said they cannot give appointment due to the poor performance of the indigenes in scholarship exams.”