TIP Friendly Society Awards 40 Scholarships Valued $1.78M

Forty students have received scholarships valued at $1.78 million from the TIP Friendly Society for the 2017/18 academic year, which begins in September.

Thirty-two scholarships were awarded to students who successfully sat the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT), while the remaining eight were presented to tertiary students.

Twenty-six GSAT students received scholarships valued at $30,000 each. The other six scholarships, valued at $35,000 each, were presented to students whose parents are members of TIP Society branches in Westmoreland, Manchester and St. Catherine.

The $35,000 scholarships were named in honour of past TIP parish Board members. They include Stafford Blake (Westmoreland), Judith Thompson (Manchester), and Livingston Allen (St. Catherine).

All eight tertiary scholarships were awarded to students who are members of TIP. Three are undergraduate students, who were each awarded the $100,000 Sylvia Spence Scholarship, named in honour of the former TIP Board member.

The five postgraduate students were each awarded the $110,000 Vilma Lawes-Munroe Scholarship, also named in honour of a past Board member.

The presentations were made at the 16th TIP scholarship awards ceremony at The Knutsford Court Hotel in New Kingston on Friday, August 25.

Guest speaker, Education, Youth and Information Minister, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid, congratulated the students for their academic achievements, and lauded TIP for its partnership ineducating the nation’s youth.

The Minister also reiterated the Government’s commitment to ensuring that every child has access to education.

He further noted that the Administration remains steadfast in its undertaking to diversify the education sector’s provisions to ensure every child receives the requisite support to achieve academic excellence.

This, Senator Reid pointed out, is being targeted through the early-education component of the Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH) which has assisted more than 40,000 children; and the Career Advancement Programme (CAP), which has seen 48,301 students trained in technical and vocational skills and 5,622 enrolling in the general programme of literacy and numeracy.

“I am excited that we are extending the capacity and that we now have the opportunity to have everybody in not just a five-year programme but a seven-year programme to guarantee that every youngster will have the opportunity to fulfil their dream of education and development. That would be a fantastic programme for Jamaica’s future development,” he said.

Meanwhile, General Manager of TIP, Wilton South, challenged the scholarship recipients to participate in nation building through academic excellence.

“As we offer (these) 40 scholarships to some of the brightest young minds across Jamaica, we feel honoured (that) we are able to give back to our TIP family that has supported us over the years.

We (will continue to) support education from the primary to the tertiary level,” he said.

TIP Friendly Society (TIP) is a non-profit insuring society for persons employed in the field of education.