By Godfrey Wamalwa
Busia university students have registered a decline in application for the Higher Education Loans Board.
County Director Vocational Training Dr Manasi Echaune said those who applied this year are approximately 400 compared to last year’s 1000.
“It is wrong for our students to keep complaining and fail to apply for the loan which is meant for them. We have done our part, allocated Sh37million for disbursement to the applicants.
We had passed the information through local media and county administrators at sub county, ward and village levels but the drastic drop in application is a cause for worry”, he said.
Dr Echaune encouraged those who would have downloaded the forms and registered with HELB to still submit them.
He also revealed that the vetting process for the County Education bursary will start soon after the formation of vetting committees, adding that Sh41.5m has been set aside for the exercise.
Dr Echaune said 11,000 students benefitted from Sh90m bursary allocation in the financial year 2016/2017.
He also disclosed that the National Government has released Sh63 million conditional grant to go towards improvement of youth polytechnics in the county, adding that all the registered youth polytechnics across the county will benefit from the grant.
