Date: October 31 2017

To: Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia

The Prime Minister Office

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

From: Ethiopian Government Sponsored Students

India

Subject; Stipend Fee Modification

Dear H. E, Prime Minister:

We, the undersigned Ethiopian government sponsored students pursuing Ph.D. & MTech. /MSc. in different Indian institutes, would like to request your office to act and give the necessary order for the concerned body to address the following problems we are facing as soon as possible.

1. Inadequate monthly stipend
2. Insufficient research grant
3. Air ticket for vacation

As it is known, MOE is offering us a stipend of 350$/month for food, accommodation and other academic and living expenses. This fee decreed before 6 years ago. But, nowadays because of high living costs and devalue the dollar in Indian currency, this payment would not cover all the necessary needs. Even as compared to the host country Ph.D. students who have been paid about 30,000 Indian rupees ($504/month), ours is shoddier. Furthermore, others Ethiopian institutes who are sponsoring their students in India institutes are paying better than us.

The research grant stipend (504$/year) was intended to cover the following services expense.

• Experimental facilities like software, chemicals, data collection and reference books
• Short term training, conferences and journal publication

However, currently, these services would not be managed by this stipend.

The other problem we are badly encountering is air ticket for a vacation. Specially, Ph.D. students spend a minimum of four years to finalise their work. Visiting a family at least once in two years during vacation is necessary. Besides, ICCR students support money is not balanced with MOE sponsored students. Therefore, it is reasonable to balance it with the MOE sponsored students.

Noting that all these problems were investigated by the Ethiopian Government committee who was organized by Ministry of Education and including the Ambassador. On their discussion with students, they agreed to solve these problems as soon as possible. But, up-to-date we have not got any solution.

Finally, we want to notify that the payment delayed by a month, which was supposed to be credited to our account on 1st Oct. 2017 and even now many students are still not received. As a result, we suffered a lot. So, we would like to strictly emphasize such problems should not happen on the future payments.

Therefore, we are kindly requesting your office to solve these problems transparently and thoroughly, and also give the immediate order to the concerned body.

We look forward to hearing back from you. Thanking you and your office for the kind consideration and cooperation.

Kind regards,

Ethiopian Government Sponsored Students in India

CC//

Ministry of Education

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia