By Malachi Motano
The ‘Wings to Fly’ scholarship programme by Equity Group Foundation (EGF) will this year benefit a total of 126 needy students from Nakuru.
According to the Principal Secretary (PS), State Department of Education, Dr Julius Jwan, over 700 applications had been received by EGF from the county out of which 210 were shortlisted.
The PS was speaking during an inspection tour of public education facilities within the devolved unit by top Ministry officials where he stated that the scholarships were awarded to the 69 girls and 57 boys after visiting their homes and verified their applications.
“The beneficiaries will all be taken to boarding schools where all their school fees, learning kits, uniform, pocket money and essentials will be paid for by EGF. Whenever schools close they will be facilitated to travel to their respective homes,” he said.
“During school holidays, they will be taken through mentorship programmes to make them skilled individuals,” he pointed out.
‘Wings to Fly’ Programme now 12-years old is funded by The MasterCard Foundation with support from German’s KfW and Equity Group.
The selected students for ‘Wings to Fly’ scholars will form the 12th cohort and will join the 17,304 scholars who have benefited from scholarships offered through the programme.
He noted that selection of students with less than 300 marks was intentional.
“It does not make sense to give scholarships to children who only score above 400 because many of them do not need the scholarship. The selection of scholars should be done wisely. They should select children who are needy and unable to pay school fees,” he said.
Dr. Jwan noted that many children perform poorly in exams due to the difficult conditions they face, but if awarded scholarships, they can perform better.
