By Seleoe Nonyane
One of the sustainable development goals is to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.
To this effect, Standard Lesotho Bank demonstrated its commitment to promoting education when it launched a bursary fund set to begin next year.
The Bank has set aside M650 000 to cover all tuition fees and living expenses of qualifying students in both secondary and high schools.
This initiative is intended to support 50 academically gifted students from less privileged backgrounds to help them enrol in both standards of education.
“Education is one of the crucial pillars of the bank’s corporate social responsibility projects, this is why the bank decided to come up with the bursary fund whereby as the bank we wish to help 50 high school and secondary students from all the 10 districts of Lesotho.
“We wish to help students from families with a combined monthly income of less than M3 000 per month at any high school class until they finish their LGCSE examinations.” the acting head of brand and marketing of Standard Lesotho Bank, Manyathela said.
He also said the bursary will cover career guidance, mentorship and psycho-social support to the qualifying students amid the course of their sponsorship. The bursary is free and open for both boy and girl students.
He explained that the bank elected high school students due to the fact that the government already has initiatives in place assisting primary and tertiary students hence they saw it fit to support secondary and high school learners.
The fund is a pilot project for a period of three years, and it will start its cohort of 50 students for 2022 with a sponsorship value of M650 000.
Applications are open until January 14 2022 and these can be delivered at any Standard Bank Lesotho Branch country wide or emailed to slbbursaries@stanbic.com.
Additional support includes payment for boarding fees, uniform and exhibition and wellness programmes among others.
Applicants are required to bring a letter of application, certified identify document and recent academic report. Proof of guardian or parents income and a testimonial from school is among the application requirements.
