A scholarship program backed by Australian overseas aid money has funded Australian schooling of children of politicians from AusAID partner countries and courses in design and photography, documents reveal.
The Australian Development Scholarships program is open to elite students from poorer nations. The Australian government is seeking to double the coverage of the program to about 3,800 places a year by 2014, with an estimated cost of 1.8 billion Australian dollars over the next five financial years, according to AusAID.
AusAID, however, is struggling to measure the effectiveness of the program, according to documents obtained under the freedom of information law, as reported by The Age.
The documents reveal that the program paid for the education in Australia of children of government ministers from at least two countries, Papua New Guinea and Laos. They also show that the program trained several students in courses such as interior design, photography and real estate studies.
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