TEST for Africa

The Tertiary Education Scholarship Trust for Africa is a UK registered charity, registered under number 1124600, which aims to fund the further education of African students. The objective of the Trust is the provision of fully funded or partially funded named scholarships to both new and continuing bright, but financially needy students for undergraduate study at public Universities and Polytechn

ics in African countries which the Trustees deem to be sufficiently under-developed, yet properly organised and governed. Awards must be channelled through local African Charitable Trusts which must undertake to operate at no cost such that 100% of all donations are made to the students, who in turn must accept bonding to continue to reside in their country of origin following their education and to contribute to the social and economic development of the country. Such local Charitable Trusts will be responsible for selection of recipients in accordance with standards established by the Trustees of TEST for Africa. Moreover, they must agree to be totally transparent and provide Annual Reports plus proper accounting records to standards and time frames established by the Trustees of TEST for Africa and the Commission. The History of TEST for Africa by Dr. Keith Lloyd

LINACRE COLLEGE, OXFORD UNIVERSITY
It began in late 1960s at Oxford University. I was at Linacre College, which was gender neutral with some 50% of the students from non-UK countries. Hagan was at Linacre at the same time and little did we know that we would meet again some 40 years later! The Linacre experience left us both with a profound sense of the value of education in future advancement of society. Almost 20 years ago, my wife, Marjorie and I with the help of the UK government through the DFID scheme created a series of Scholarships (Norman & Ivy LLOYD and LLOYD Scholars) for very bright, financially needy African students to pursue one year Masters studies in subjects which would enhance the social and economic development of their countries of origin. Since then we have some 30 to 40 successful “sons and daughters ” who are back in Africa making significant contributions to their communities; six of whom are Ghanaian. Emmanuel Tachie-Obeng, Mark Fynn, Leander Atawune Kandilige, Ishmael Dodoo, Anita Takura Adanu, and Abdul Razak- Saeed. JOHN TRAVERS
John was a long standing dear friend of my family, and he approached me just over a year ago following his retirement to ask if I could, through our network of African “sons and daughters ” help him with a project he was working on for a UK Charity called Schools Around the World which he founded and which has amongst its aims to build schools in Africa (principally Ghana and Tanzania). Sadly John died prematurely, but with his widow, Jennie who is also here today, we are committed to make his dreams come true. With this in mind, I asked one of my Ghanaian “sons ”, Ishmael to put a position paper together highlighting the Ghanaian educational system to aid Jennie and Schools Around the World in their decision making for the construction of a future school in Ghana. During my debriefing meeting with Ishmael, I suddenly discovered that for every student that we finance at Linacre College, Oxford, we could provide fully funded scholarships for some 40 undergraduates to attend Ghanaian Universities. This was what we call “a no brainer ”; and Jennie and I immediately decided to visit Ghana to ascertain if such a scolarship programme was feasible. DECEMBER 2007 - VISIT TO GHANA
Professor Hagan, Emmanuel, Mark and Anita together with Ishmael put together a week long visit to selected Universities and Polytechnics throughout Ghana, plus meetings with NUGS and the Minister for Education. We also visited a couple of boys and girls High Schools in Tamale/Bolgatonga. During this trip we met many wonderful people, among them were Mrs Kokui Adu from the University of Ghana at Legon, and Professor David Millar of the University of Development Studies both of whom made a deep impression on us. With the aid of Professor Hagan, who kindly agreed to be come Chairman, we took the decision to form TEST for GHANA (Tertiary Education Scholarship Trust for Ghana) and invited Mrs Kokui Adu, Professor David Millar, Emmanuel Tachie-Obeng, Mark Fynn and Anita Takura Adanu to become the six Trustees. I would like to publicly acknowledge our pride and delight at having such a distinguished team of highly motivated, capable and generous people as Trustees of TEST for GHANA. This augurs well for the future of the Charity. JULY 2008 - LAUNCH OF TEST FOR GHANA
Jennie Travers, Kim Lloyd and Keith Lloyd, representing TEST for AFRICA visited Ghana for the official launch of TEST for GHANA at a well attended Press Conference in Accra on 29 July 2008. Representatives of Stakeholders and NUGS were also in attendance. The Press Conference was chaired by Professor George Hagan, Chairman of TEST for GHANA with presentations being made by Professor Hagan, Keith Lloyd and Emmanuel Tachie-Obeng. TEST for GHANA received extensive national television and newspaper coverage following this event at which time it was announced that effective September 2008 a minimum of 80 Scholarships with an average value of 500 Cedis per year would be awarded to both new and continuing students at all public Universities and Polytechnics. Public announcement of the first awards by TEST for GHANA will be made in October 2008. During the same visit, Jennie Travers, Kim Lloyd and Keith Lloyd visited Stakeholders in Cape Coast, Wa and Tamale. Valuable visits were also made to Girls Secondary High Schools in Tamale, Bolgatanga and Wa to announce the Scholarships and to encourage those bright yet needy girls from these schools to who would not normally consider undertaking tertiary education to realise their potential with financial support from TEST for GHANA. TEST for GHANA has committed to work directly with these schools to create a awareness programmes and to identify potential candidates at an early stage in their Secondary High School education.