staggering 112 applicants had to be ruled out this year.

Only 15 students met the necessary standards for the eight Bermuda Government scholarships.

More than half had to be barred because they had failed to meet the necessary conditions, such as getting the right grades and coming within the 17-23 age bracket.

But Shadow Education Minister Tim Smith said he was worried students were not given enough time to get their grades in to the Education Department for the end of June deadline.

This year 54 students fell at the first hurdle because of this problem.

Mr. Smith called for an overhaul in the way scholarships and awards were handled and said there had been accusations of nepotism in the way education awards were handled.

He said: "There was a perceived or real bias in the system, with accusations that awards went to friends and relatives.'' He said he had been working on new procedures before the United Bermuda Party were ousted in the last election.

He said: "I made recommendations last year, but since then the scholarship committee has been completely replaced and I imagine they haven't implemented the suggested improvements.'' The recommendations included: extending the deadline for waiting for exam marks for students currently studying abroad; changing the application form to make it easier to read and complete with fewer pages; and giving the application form a number and removing the student's name from the form as it goes through the process to remove accusations of nepotism in who receives the awards.

Mr. Smith added: "Other feedback from students is that they don't believe the system is over-friendly or helpful.

"The committee that reviews applications sometimes needs to meet several times and attendance isn't always consistent from meeting to meeting.

"There are real problems with the process. We should be encouraging our students to study overseas at some point in the educational development.'' However, Education Minister Milton Scott dismissed any charge of nepotism and said there was no evidence that any work had been done on improving the process during Mr. Smith's time in office.

Sen. Scott said of the Education Department: "They are doing an excellent job. It's not easy and everyone feels they have an entitlement to an award.

"But it's not to do with friends and family, it's to do with having the qualifications and meeting the criteria.'' He added: "We are looking at the forms to see if we can change them. There's a certain ambiguity in some of the questions.

"We will see if we can make them more user friendly.'' But he said he could not extend the deadline to allow students more time to submit their exam results.

"They have four to six weeks to get them in but we have to give the scholarship committee time to interview candidates,'' Sen. Scott said.

"It's frustrating to see some very qualified individuals not able to get all their documents in on time. But students must take the initiative to get universities to send results. They can call, fax and e-mail them.'' The Bermuda Government Scholarship system was also attacked when three of the eight possible places went begging after students turned them down because they had better offers elsewhere. Business student Kristen White, 18, said: "This is a shambles. If people have already got Scholarships, then they should then offer them to other people. It's wrong not to give them out at all.

"Those people who have missed out and have been offered a further education award should be upgraded.

"We kept hearing that there would be more scholarships on offer but there are less. The competition is so tough -- there are not many scholarships out there.'' "We're always hearing that there are not enough educated people in this country and that's why they have to bring people in from abroad but there would be no need for this if they helped us,'' she continued.

"It seems there is not as much controversy as there should be about this.

Students are the future of the country.'' Mr. Smith added that he was worried Government Scholarships will fall into disrepute if this continued.

"We should be able to find suitably qualified Bermudians to be awarded the Bermudian Government Scholarships,'' he said.

"Out of so many applications to award only five is very disappointing.'' AWARDS AWD