CHASE Provides $36.5 Million In Scholarships For Students Studying Early Childhood Education

The Culture, Health,, Arts Science and Education (CHASE) Fund has provided $36.5 million in scholarships to tertiary-level students pursuing undergraduate degrees in early-childhood education for the 2021/22 academic year.

Scholarship recipients are attending teacher-training institutions across the island.

The investment is in keeping with CHASE’s ongoing support for the development of the early-childhood education sector.

In 2013, CHASE adjusted its investment strategy to focus on undergraduate courses in early childhood education. Scholarships were offered for diploma courses and was expanded to include Bachelor of Arts degree programmes.

President of The Mico University College, which is one of the partner institutions for the scholarship programme, Dr. Asburn Pinnock, tells JIS News that the CHASE Fund has been providing financial aid for early-childhood education students at the institution for more than a decade, and in recent years, has also provided aid for visual arts students.

He says that the support, over the years, has enabled hundreds of students to study at Mico and to be better equipped to serve the early-childhood-education sector.

He informs that students apply to the CHASE Fund for the scholarship, “and through its (CHASE) mechanism, the selection is done, the school is notified, and the funds are sent [to Mico]. The renewal of the scholarship is dependent on the academic performance of the student”.

Dr. Pinnock says that Mico welcomes the scholarship programme, as it enables students to meet their financial obligations with the institution.

He notes that, worldwide, “the inability of many individuals to attend or complete college is due [primarily] to financial reasons”.

“Without the assistance of CHASE, many brilliant, promising students and future leaders would have found it challenging to complete their studies. This assistance also helps to improve the enrolment and completion rate of students,” Dr. Pinnock notes.

Among the CHASE scholarship recipients is Union Gardens Infant School teacher, Taneka Mckoy-Phipps, who is studying at The Mico University College.

Mrs. Mckoy-Phipps, who received the scholarship in the 2020/2021 academic year, was referred by the principal of her school.

She had previously applied, on behalf of herself and her daughter, after hearing about the scholarship from classmates and colleagues, who had been successful in their applications.

“I didn’t receive it the first time. In fact, it was the principal of the school where I work, Mrs. Moss Solomon, who applied on my behalf the second time. She asked me for my university progress report and status letter and helped me through the application process,” Mrs. Mckoy-Phipps relates to JIS News.

To qualify for the scholarship, she had to maintain a 3.0 grade point average or higher, be registered at an accredited institution and have financial need.

“The scholarship gave me the head start I needed. Receiving the scholarship from CHASE has been a blessing. It covers a little over half of my tuition fee and for me, that is wonderful because I didn’t have that kind of money to even begin to offset the cost of my undergraduate studies,” she notes.

Mrs. Mckoy-Phipps shares that she chose to study early childhood education because of her passion for shaping young minds.

“I believe in giving children the right start through education because once students receive the right start, then they will be able to build successfully,” she says.

“I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to the CHASE Fund for helping me to pursue my dream of being trained to work with young children. The journey of furthering my education was made a lot easier through them,” she adds.

The scholarship programme was designed in collaboration with the Early Childhood Commission (ECC), the University of the West Indies, and the Joint Board of Teacher Education.

In addition to The Mico University College, the scholarships are also tenable at Shortwood, St. Joseph’s, Sam Sharpe, and Church Teachers’ Colleges, and the International University of the Caribbean (IUC).

In November 2014, CHASE Fund signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the partner colleges to improve accountability and strengthen its relationship with the institutions.

The MOU governs the scholarship arrangement, allowing for improvement in the administration and monitoring of undergraduate and postgraduate students pursuing three- and four-year degrees.

Interested applicants can contact the institution that they attend or visit the CHASE Fund website at www.chasefund.org.jm.