Libyan Scholarship Students Travel, Never Return

Libyan Foreign Minister Najla el-Mangoush attends a joint press conference at the conclusion of the Libya Stabilization Conference, in Tripoli, Libya, October 21, 2021. REUTERS/Hazem Ahmed
Libyan Foreign Minister Najla el-Mangoush attends a joint press conference at the conclusion of the Libya Stabilization Conference, in Tripoli, Libya, October 21, 2021. REUTERS/Hazem Ahmed
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Libyan Scholarship Students Travel, Never Return

Libyan Foreign Minister Najla el-Mangoush attends a joint press conference at the conclusion of the Libya Stabilization Conference, in Tripoli, Libya, October 21, 2021. REUTERS/Hazem Ahmed
Libyan Foreign Minister Najla el-Mangoush attends a joint press conference at the conclusion of the Libya Stabilization Conference, in Tripoli, Libya, October 21, 2021. REUTERS/Hazem Ahmed

The Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research in Libya’s interim Government of National Unity said around 2,000 students, who were studying abroad, didn’t return to the country although their scholarship term has expired.

Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Dr. Imran al-Qeib stated that 1,922 students from all Libyan universities received scholarships to study abroad “but their expedition ended, and they didn’t submit documents justifying their stay outside the country.”

He added that the Grievances Committee formed upon a ministerial decision wasn’t convinced with their justifications and decided to suspend their scholarships.

Families of the travelling students have expressed deep concerns over their future, so the minister decided to give the students a last chance to contact the grievances committee to explain their situation before April 28, or their names will be submitted to the ministry of finance to cancel their financial support.

Libyans have slammed the minister’s decision and expressed their objection on social media, accusing the concerned parties of “interference and corruption,” saying some students plan to appeal the decision.

Back in August, Imran al-Qeib requested the directors of universities to submit lists featuring the names of students with scholarships abroad, who didn’t return despite the end of their term to take the necessary measures.

At the time, the minister said the scholarships suspension decision “will be taken in accordance with the laws and the lists to protect the right of other eligible students of benefitting from future scholarships.”

Scholarships given to students abroad are among the corruption issues in Libya; the audit bureau in the capital, Tripoli, formerly advised the ministry of foreign affairs to form an independent committee to review the portfolios of all students who received scholarships abroad in accordance with a 2020 law, to verify if they meet the scholarship’s requirements and conditions.

Khalid Shakshak, head of the audit bureau, called Foreign Minister Najla el-Mangoush to “reconsider suspending all the individual decisions taken in violation of the 2020 law because they weren’t legally presented to the concerned committee.”

In a recent report, the audit bureau raised concerns over decisions taken by the former foreign minister, Mohammed Siala, and accused him of giving scholarships to suspicious employees, and issuing fake scholarships.



Children Suffer as Schools Go Online in Polluted Delhi

Confined to her home by the toxic smog choking India's capital, Harshita Gautam attends an online class on a mobile phone - AFP
Confined to her home by the toxic smog choking India's capital, Harshita Gautam attends an online class on a mobile phone - AFP
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Children Suffer as Schools Go Online in Polluted Delhi

Confined to her home by the toxic smog choking India's capital, Harshita Gautam attends an online class on a mobile phone - AFP
Confined to her home by the toxic smog choking India's capital, Harshita Gautam attends an online class on a mobile phone - AFP

Confined to her family's ramshackle shanty by the toxic smog choking India's capital, Harshita Gautam strained to hear her teacher's instructions over a cheap mobile phone borrowed from her mother.

The nine-year-old is among nearly two million students in and around New Delhi told to stay home after authorities once again ordered schools to shut because of worsening air pollution.

Now a weary annual ritual, keeping children at home and moving lessons online for days at a time during the peak of the smog crisis in winter ostensibly helps protect the health of the city's youth.

The policy impacts both the education and the broader well-being of schoolkids around the city -- much more so for children from poorer families like Gautam.

"I don't like online classes," she told AFP, sitting on a bed her family all share at night in their spartan one-room home in the city's west.

"I like going to school and playing outside but my mother says there is too much pollution and I must stay inside."

Gautam struggles to follow the day's lesson, with the sound of her teacher's voice periodically halting as the connection drops out on the cheap Android phone.

Her parents both earn paltry incomes -- her polio-stricken father by working at a roadside food stall and her mother as a domestic worker.

Neither can afford to skip work and look after their only child, and they do not have the means to buy air purifiers or take other measures to shield themselves from the smog.

Gautam's confinement at home is an additional financial burden for her parents, who normally rely on a free-meal programme at her government-run school to keep her fed for lunch.

"When they are at school I don't have to worry about their studies or food. At home, they are hardly able to pay any attention," Gautam's mother Maya Devi told AFP.

"Why should our children suffer? They must find some solution."

Delhi and the surrounding metropolitan area, home to more than 30 million people, consistently tops world rankings for air pollution.

The city is blanketed in acrid smog each winter, primarily blamed on agricultural burning by farmers to clear their fields for ploughing, as well as factories and traffic fumes.

Levels of PM2.5 -- dangerous cancer-causing microparticles that enter the bloodstream through the lungs -- surged 60 times past the World Health Organization's recommended daily maximum on Monday.

A study in the Lancet medical journal attributed 1.67 million premature deaths in India to air pollution in 2019.

Piecemeal government initiatives include partial restrictions on fossil fuel-powered transport and water trucks spraying mist to clear particulate matter from the air.

But none have succeeded in making a noticeable impact on a worsening public health crisis.

- 'A lot of disruptions' -

The foul air severely impacts children, with devastating effects on their health and development.

Scientific evidence shows children who breathe polluted air are at higher risk of developing acute respiratory infections, a report from the UN children's agency said in 2022.

A 2021 study published in the medical journal Lung India found nearly one in three school-aged children in the capital were afflicted by asthma and airflow obstruction.

Sunita Bhasin, director of the Swami Sivananda Memorial Institute school, told AFP that pollution-induced school closures had been steadily increasing over the years.

"It's easy for the government to give a blanket call to close the schools but... abrupt closure leads to a lot of disruptions," she said.

Bhasin said many of Delhi's children would anyway continue to breathe the same noxious air whether at school or home.

"There is no space for them in their homes, so they will go out on the streets and play."