Kiambu Member of Parliament, Machua Waithaka, has announced that public day secondary school students will not be paying for school fees.
Machua, speaking in Ndumberi stadium in Kiambu during the disbursement of over Sh 60 million in bursary funds, said that the national government constituency development fund (NG-CDF) will cover the school fees of all students in the nine-day secondary schools within the constituency.
” No student in the Kiambu constituency in day secondary school is paying school fees. If possible, those parents who have students in boarding school should transfer them to day schools so that they too can enjoy the fruits of what we are doing in the education sector,” Machua said.
He said that the NG-CDF will continue to pay bursary funds to boarding schools, universities, colleges, and TVET.
“The first year once we entered office we issued Sh 32.5 million to 7,000 students in bursaries the second year we issued over Sh 52 million to 9,000 students in bursary, this year we have come up with a program where no student will be chased away from school due to lack of school fees as we have paid for all of them,” he said.
He added that he has talked to the day secondary school teachers about not charging anything for the students, including tuition and remedial fees.
“I do not want to hear about tuition and remedial fees being charged in our day schools, as we have paid for everything to keep the students in school,” he said.
He said that they have embarked on comprehensive works to rehabilitate primary schools, including replacing old rooftops with new ones, putting up tiles in classrooms, installing cabro inside the school compound, and putting up perimeter walls and modern school gates.
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” We are doing comprehensive work in our schools, and now the new outlook is that of academy schools. We have been able to change the environment of our learning institutions, and our pupils and students are happy to be in school,” he said.
He said that 1,200 youths were trained in short courses. Through the NOTA programme, the national government enrolled 70 youths in every ward in the constituency who are being trained in small and medium enterprise literacy, and we were given sh 50,000 for start-ups.
He said 300 boda boda operators have been enrolled for training, for which NG-CDF has paid sh 5,500 for each. They are awaiting certification and licenses, and 300 more will be trained this year.
He said that the Jitume centre set up in Ndumberi village will enrol 150 young men and women to be trained.
Peter Kimani, a resident who received bursary funding for his son and daughter, said they are grateful that the NG-CDF is helping those who cannot afford school fees.
“Here in Kiambu, if a needy parent has over five children who want school fees, one must apply, and all five students will be given a bursary. Everybody who applies for bursary funds is given,” he said.
Lucy Njoki, a parent, said that the bursary process does not discriminate. While applying, all relevant information required to complete the forms is found in one place, reducing the burden of looking for the forms to sign.
“Our MP has designed a one-stop shop method where chiefs, pastors, and other relevant people needed to sign bursary forms are found in one place to reduce the burden of parents having to find them to sign the forms,” she said.
By Felix Njenga
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