The Kiambu government is planning to increase the bursary kitty to Sh1 billion by 2026, Governor Kimani Wamatangi has said.
He spoke on Tuesday during the issuance of the third tranche of Sh200 million bursary funds that will benefit 38,000 needy students. The
“By 2025 the bursary fund will be Sh700 million and by 2026, we aim for Sh1 billion,” Wamatangi said.
The current fund stands at Sh500 million.
He said Kiambu will be the first to declare free day secondary school.
“We have a pillar that states ‘leave no child behind’ where all day secondary school students will go to school free of charge courtesy of the county government without discrimination of whether they are poor or not,” Wamatangi said.
He said a needy student is allocated for bursary is Sh5,000, which is awarded every term.
“When I took over office, I found that the bursary kitty was only Sh100 million per year for all the county 60 wards and needy students were being allocated Sh2,000, which left them with arrears. Now we are allocating each Sh5,000 every term,” Wamatangi said.
The governor said the county education department is committed to constructing ECDE classrooms in all the 527 public primary schools. He said 134 classrooms have been constructed.
“By 2027, we will have constructed ECDE classrooms in all our public primary schools. They will include two classrooms, an administration room, toilets and a playground,” he said.
Wamatangi said they conducted an analysis of the ECDE’s in the county and found many had only seven pupils but after the education department introduced a feeding programme, the enrolment increased to an average of 47 pupils per class.
The children are given nutritious porridge in the morning, milk and an egg during the day.
“We did our research on why our ECDE’s do not have large enrolments and we found out that they have challenges. We started with a feeding programme and rehabilitating the existing ECDE to modern status including constructing new ones,” he said.
Wamatangi said the county government has engaged the ECDE teachers on permanent and pensionable terms.
MCAs, led by county assembly majority leader Godfrey Mucheke, said they will support the governor's bid to increase the bursary.
"We will support our governor to ensure no child is left behind on education matters," Mucheke said.
Resident Mary Njeri said the enhanced bursary from Sh2,000 to Sh5,000 will help keep their children in school.
