Mozambique:’ Computer error’ halts scholarships to Portugal for 87 students

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Mozambique:’ Computer error’ halts scholarships to Portugal for 87 students

7:16 CAT | 06 Sep 2024

FILE - For illustration purposes only. [File photo: Lusa]

A group of 87 students from Mozambique have been excluded from scholarships in Portugal this year due to an error in the computer system used by their country’s authorities in their submission of applications, various sources told Lusa on Friday.

“At the moment I feel very frustrated, even more so for my son’s psychological and emotional side,” said Nélia Jamaldine, the mother of one of the students.

According to this parent, the students were not warned about the computer system malfunction and, allegedly, only after the submission deadline had expired did they receive a joint statement from Mozambique’s Ministry of Higher Education and Ministry of Foreign Affairs announcing their exclusion .

In the document, issued on 27 August, the ministries admit that the 87 application files were rejected due to a failure in the computer system when the files were sent to Portugal’s Directorate General for Higher Education (DGES), and suggest that the students seek enrolment in other Portuguese higher education institutions.

“In view of the constraints (…) the 87 applications will automatically be considered ‘accepted’ for the purposes of submitting an application to the next contest for access to higher education in Portugal via the special regime and will receive preferential treatment in the subsequent processing of the application processes,” reads the document from the ministries.

The students’ parents decry the belated issuing of the communique announcing the problem and speak of the investment they have already made so that their children could study in Portugal this year. Furthermore, the higher education institutions suggested by the Mozambican Government charge high tuition fees and, in some cases, do not teach the courses chosen by the students.

“Almos all of the possibilities put forward by the Scholarship Institute are good for nothing; they are good to fix absolutely nothing ” Valnir Chiambe, the father of one of the students, told Lusa.

The mother of another of the students, Paula Tocha agreed: ““f they had informed us then [when the error occurred], we could still have raced against time to try and find some other way for our children to apply … because now applications have already closed”.

The parents and guardians of the 87 students have submitted petitions to nine institutions in Mozambique, including the Ministry of Higher Education, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Education, Portugal’s embassy in Mozambique, the Scholarship Institute, the office of the prime minister, the office of the attorney general and Mozambique’s embassy in Portugal, seeking a solution before Thursday, 12 September, the date on which the list of those admitted to the scholarships will be announced.

Today, a source from Mozambique’s Ministry of Science, Technology, and Higher Education told Lusa that errors in the computer system during applications’ submission are frequent every year, stating that the problem is due to the pressure caused by the number of applications to be submitted.

“”What we’re actually doing is communicating that they’ve all been registered, but the platform itself has rejected them,” said the source, reiterating that the 87 excluded students will be prioritised next year. “It wasn’t the Instituto de Bolsas [Scholarship Institute] that excluded them; it wasn’t Portugal. It’s the pressure exerted on the platform that creates this kind of dysfunction.”

Source: Lusa