College of Medicine ‘needy’ student lied his status

When they say there is no secret under the sun, elders mean it as 20-year-old Frank Kaphesi, a first year physiotherapy student at the College of Medicine (CoM) who lied to public about his academic situation the whole truth is now known.

On Wednesday, several publications depicted  Kaphesi as was about to be withdrawn from the college over his failure to pay for school fees.

That followed Kaphesi granted a letter of identification signed by the college’s Dean of Students, F. Lampiao, supporting him as a needy students who cannot afford paying school fees’ and he went to streets of Blantyre asking for help.

Kaphesi claimed that he risked being withdrawn from the college as he has not registered with the college and will not be allowed to sit for the mid-semester examinations slated for next week.

However, after well-wishers started expressing interest to rescue him from his claimed problems, it has emerged that he is one of the 80 students who are benefiting from the Medic to Medic scholarship from the United Kingdom.

“He is under the Medic to Medic scholarship which is one of the best scholarship one can get at this institution, the scholarship caters for school fees, upkeep allowances, medical equipment, books and laptops and students are not withdrawn from the scholarship until they finish their studies,” Lampiao said.

Limpiao said students who are on scholarships are not allowed to apply for the student’s loans provided by the Higher Education Students Loans and Grants Board. However it has also been found that Kaphesi applied for the loan to be provided with both upkeep allowance and schools fees totaling to about K850,000.

The dean of Students also said that Kaphesi failed to answer when asked why he chose to lie to the nation in such a way.

However, Kaphesi admitted that he is under the medic to medic scholarship and recently officials visited the college campus in September and provided him and the other students with money amounting to K70,000 each.