Bermuda College scholarship controversy.

On Wednesday, Sen. Scott revealed that only four out of the 20 students from CedarBridge who were told they had the scholarship, actually received it.

But yesterday he said: "I have asked the Permanent Secretary to conduct an inquiry into the entire processing of the scholarships. It will take at least a couple of days, but it has started already.

"I would just ask parents to be patient and hold on until the inquiry is complete. At that time a full explanation will be given and if appropriate, a list of revised awardees will be named.'' The Minister's move should also clear up a widely held belief that no CedarBridge students have received the award.

The Royal Gazette revealed that valedictorian at CedarBridge Tiara Carter was mistakenly sent a letter from the Ministry saying she was not successful in her application, despite having achieved a grade point average of 3.4. She was subsequently called and told the letter was incorrect.

Controversy over the awards of the scholarships arose after mother Marlene Bean claimed this week that she was being stonewalled by the Ministry of Education in trying to determine the status of her daughter's scholarship.

Mrs. Bean, who has since been inundated with offers of help, said her daughter Jonakia was told she had been awarded the scholarship at the end of May.

But on Monday when the single mother tried to find out about the award she was eventually told by the Minister that her daughter had not met the requirements.

The scholarship was initiated by the former UBP government to help curb growing absenteeism. Students who had a 95 percent attendance record and maintained a "B'' average were to be eligible. An additional requirement, that they agree to random drug testing, was dropped by the PLP Government because the infrastructure and funds were not in place.

Jonakia was president of the CedarBridge Student Government and had a final cumulative grade point average of 3.0. But according to Sen. Scott she fell below the mark in her final year. He stressed that the fifth year grade point average was looked at in isolation for the award.

Mrs. Bean has called for a public apology from the Ministry for "misleading my daughter and me''.

Sen. Scott yesterday said he is anxious to have the matter cleared up and pointed out that the aim of the scholarship was to be "more inclusive not exclusionary''.

EDUCATION ED