- Beneficiaries issued with cheques at Uhuru Gardens in Mpeketoni by Governor Twaha
- They included secondary, university, college and TVET students
The county government of Lamu has issued Sh176 million bursaries to at least 15,000 students.
Beneficiaries were issued with cheques at Uhuru Gardens in Mpeketoni on Friday in a ceremony presided over by Lamu Governor Fahim Twaha.
The annual bursary and scholarship allocation has been increased from the initial Sh127 Million to Sh176 million by the county government.
Beneficiaries included secondary school, university, college and TVET students.
This year’s top KCPE performers also benefited from the scholarship fund.
A total of 3,500 university students, 3,250 TVET students,1,478 KCPE top performers and 7,700 secondary students benefited from the Sh.176 Million scholarship.
Twaha said his administration will honour its pledge to sponsor all KCPE candidates who scored 300 marks and above for their four-year secondary school education.
The governor said apart from generally improving education standards, their biggest motivation to increase funding for the scholarship was to support the national government’s 100 per cent transition from primary to secondary schools and tertiary levels.
He said the scholarships will also reduce the number of students quitting school due to poverty.
“Our objective is to do all we can to uplift the education sector here. We don’t want children staying home or dropping out of school because they have no fees. We want to put a stop to issues like early marriages too. It is an opportunity to be embraced and utilized well by the beneficiaries,” Twaha said.
Lamu’s chief officer for Education and Vocational Training Shee Sagara said the plan is to ensure learners are well prepared for the future job market by ensuring they access the necessary training.
Sagara however warned that lazy, irresponsible and indisciplined students who won’t be consistent in their good performance would lose the scholarship.