By Malachi Motano
Finally the 52,500 bright but needy students in Nairobi will now receive bursaries for their secondary education.
According to the County Education Executive Janet Ouko, the funds were meant to be disbursed in the financial year that ended June 30, 2020, had been delayed due to wrangles at the county government.
“We were not able to disburse bursaries during the 2019/2020 financial year due to various reasons which even you people know-there was challenge with administration. But we have now been able to fast track the process and we will be giving out the bursaries with immediate effect,” said Ms Ouko
The Executive clarifies that county government operates two levels of bursaries which include the Executive or Governor’s bursary fund and the Sh297.5 million ward bursary funds.
“The ward bursary fund is administered by each ward representative with each ward receiving Sh3.5 million that is disbursed to 700 beneficiaries, while for the executive bursary, We have 3,000 students enrolled under the programme where each gets between Sh45,000 and Sh53,000 as per the Ministry of Education fees guidelines and the beneficiaries are assured of support for the four years they will be in school,” says Ms. Ouko.
For the ward bursary funds, she says it is up to the area MCA with his bursary committee to identify the bright but needy students from their wards to benefit from the Sh3.5 million. Each student gets Sh5,000 and is also given to the tertiary learners like driving school, hairdressing and so on.
Meanwhile the Executive Fund is administered by the Executive on behalf of the governor where 1,000 bright but students in public primary schools are considered. “We take the top three from these schools unless those in the top three are not needy then we consider the next student to benefit working closely with the respective head teachers,” says the executive.
