By Mary Kabay
On November 12, 2020, the Chinese Embassy in Sierra Leone held a gathering event for the newly enrolled Sierra Leonean Students under the Chinese Government Scholarships Program 2020.
H.E. Chinese Ambassador Hu Zhangliang, Hon. Minister of Technical and Higher Education Prof. Aiah Gbakima, 39 scholarship recipients as well as members of the Fourth Estate graced the occasion
Ambassador Hu congratulated the students for gaining admission into various prominent Chinese universities under the Chinese Government Scholarships Program and continued by intimating that China will continue to strengthen the bilateral cooperation in education, which, he said, is one of the top priorities of President Bio’s New Direction Administration.
Ambassador Hu said that since 1976 when three Sierra Leonean students were awarded Chinese Government scholarships , over 1,000 Sierra Leonean students had been offered the opportunity to study in China under the program.
Minister of Higher and Technical Education, Professor Gbakima expressed gratitude and appreciation on behalf of the Government of Sierra Leonean to the Chinese Government for what he called the valuable support.
It was underscored that due to COVID-19 pandemic, all the newly enrolled students have to stay in Sierra Leone and take online courses provided by the Universities at the current stage.
In order to help the students overcome the difficulties, the Chinese Embassy provided each student an allowance and introduced them to the Confucius Institute of the University of Sierra Leone for face-to-face Chinese language remedial classes.
The Ministry of Technical and Higher Education offered important help in recommending and selecting the candidates.
All scholarship recipients expressed gratitude for benefitting from the scholarship program.
