By Frederick Philander WINDHOEK The first group of 30 Namibian students to study at Cuban universities under a bilateral agreement for the next five years, left on Tuesday evening from the Hosea Kutako International Airport. Senior officials from both the ministry of Education and the embassy of Cuba bade the students farewell, the first group of a total number of 92 students who will also leave over the next few days. More than 1ÃÆ’Æ‘ÀÃ…ÃÆ”šÃ‚ 300 Namibian students, among them personalities like the minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources, dr Abraham Iyambo, and the Director of the National Planning Commission, Helmuth Angula, completed tertiary studies in Cuba. “The selection and recruitment process by the ministry of Education took about four months before we came up with the final list of students to study with full scholarships from the Cuban government. I am happy with the candidates selected in a transparent and fair manner from all the regions of the country,” said the deputy director of education in the Khomas Region, Nathalia Goagoses, who accompanied the first group of 30 students to Cuba via London. The average age of the students is between 20 and 25 years. According to the Second Secretary of the Cuban embassy in Windhoek, the 92 scholarships were offered in the brotherly spirit that exists between the Namibian and Cuban nations. “Under the agreement, Namibia was initially supposed to pay for the scholarships, but in the end my government decided to absorb all the costs as a humanitarian gesture to the people of Namibia as part of human resource development and in line with the Namibian government’s Vision 2030 goals,” said Second Secretary, Evelio Sanchez, of the Namibian students, most of who will follow courses in civil engineering, Mathematics, Agriculture and Science.