21 students to win scholarships in MTN drive

By Esther Namirimu

GAYAZA - Twenty-one students from 21 different schools around the country will each win a fully-paid scholarship from MTN Uganda this year following the launch of the annual three-week Y’ello Care staff initiative.

The kickoff of this year’s drive was launched at Gayaza High School on Friday, with Mengo S.S, Mt. St. Mary’s Namagunga, Kings College Budo, and Ndejje S.S in attendance.

Y’ello Care, organized every year, involves the telecom’s staff getting physically involved in activities that uplift communities around them through financial, physical and emotional contributions.

This year’s campaign, themed Investing in Education, has its focus on ICT in education, a critical area that features in MTN’s vision: “To lead in the delivery of a bold new digital world to our customers.”

Along the same lines, the telecom company – partnered by Gayaza High School – launched an e-learning platform in June 2012 that enables students from different schools across the country to access educational material from the recommended national syllabus as well as other relevant material.

The firm’s CEO Mazen Mroue said that 50 schools are participating to win the 12 available scholarships.

So what does it take?

Each school will register at least five students to take part in an online aptitude exam, with 50 questions to be answered correctly in the time if one hour and 15 minutes.

“The aptitude test will be marked by the system and results provided instantly – in real time,” Mazen pointed out.

“The tests will be done at regional hub schools where participating students and schools will converge on June 14.”

On the same day, mentorship and career guidance classes will also be conducted for participating students.

The hub schools for the regional activations this year are Makerere College for central, Mwiri College for the eastern, Mvara Secondary School for northern and Bweranyangi Girls School for western.

“The scholarships have been split equally among regions to make 20 but one additional special to make the 21,” he added.

As part of a drive to generate positive content for the e-learning platform, MTN Uganda will also initiate a competition on its Facebook page with the objective of acquiring innovative content and applications to support Uganda schools e-learning platform.

The deputy headmistress of Gayaza High School, Robinah Kizito said that it is such a great honour that MTN elected to launch this year’s drive at their school.

“As Gayaza, we are proud to be partners with MTN and we thank MTN for supporting us so we can spread out to other schools in different regions of Uganda.

“We hope the ministry of education will come in to support this initiative by encouraging students and teachers through the country to use the Universal Secondary School E-learning Platform [USSEP],” she said.