Poor English hampers applicants

JAYAPURA, Papua (Jakarta Post) : The Australian Development Scholarships (ADS) program Friday began screening potential scholarship recipients from Papua and West Papua in Jayapura.

Since the program was launched in 2001, it has prioritized students from the eastern part of Indonesia, who comprise 30 percent of the total number of recipients.

"Ironically, each year the number of recipients from Papua is very small, not due to their academic backgrounds ... but due to difficulties in (using) the English language," said ADS program leader David Spiller.

Recipients must gain an IELTS score of at least 5 points, or equivalent to 500 in the TOEFL.

Each year, the Australian government provides scholarships to 270 students from Indonesia for post-graduate study in Australia. The program received 4,720 applications this year and processed 540 applicants to sit for interviews.

"We are interviewing 24 students from Papua and West Papua. Previously, shortlisted applicants had to go to Makassar or Jakarta to attend the interviews," he said.

Most of the 24 applicants have chosen environmental and forestry studies. They were interviewed by Professor Janella Allison from Tasmania University and Roosmalawati Roesman from the office of the minister for research and technology.