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The Kisumu government has disbursed the first tranche of bursaries and scholarships amounting to Sh102 million in 2021-2022 financial year.
Deputy Governor Mathews Owili said the money will support 1,330 scholarships and 33,000 bursary beneficiaries from the 35 wards.
Owili, who presided over the disbursement on behalf of Governor Anyang Nyong’o on Wednesday, said beneficiaries have been carefully selected from the many applications.
Kisumu Speaker Elisha Oraro, chief of staff Kassim Abdallah and assembly education committee chairman David Arao were present.
“The bursary and scholarship committees have sat for long hours to ensure fairness in the allocation,” Owili said.
In the last financial year, he said the county distributed Sh205 million in bursaries and scholarships from the education fund.
The education fund was gazetted in 2017, when Nyong’o took over.
The DG said they have digitised and improved the management of the kitty.
He said their policy is to ensure no needy child is left behind.
Owili said the fund targets to educate bright and needy students at secondary and tertiary levels of education.
It also aims to increase retention and completion rates at secondary level, motivate learners to aspire for excellence and stem the worrying trend of high secondary school drop-out rates.
Since 2017, 1,960 scholarship beneficiaries have been sponsored in various schools for Sh181 million with bursary beneficiaries having consumed Sh302 million.
Maritime training has been considered in the 2021-2022 financial year with the first cohort of 70 students set for admission to Kenya Marine School in Kisumu on January 24.
The beneficiaries include two students of each gender per ward. In 2017-2022, the county further spent Sh13 million to sponsor 1,582 trainees in the local driving schools.
Additionally, Owili said the county government has already released Sh35.5 million to the vocational training centres as capitation.
“The second tranche of Sh35 million is currently being processed. This capitation has resulted in improved student enrolment in the VTCs which currently stands at 700,” he said.
The allocation, Owili said, has steadily increased since 2018 to cater to the increasing demand by the needy students.
“The transition rate to university for the scholarship beneficiaries stands at 85 per cent. The 2017-2018 pilot cohort are currently first-year students at the university,” he said.
He said there is high demand for bursaries and scholarships in the county.
“This is why we are working closely with partners in plugging the hole. I wish to sincerely thank Equity Bank through its Wings to Fly programme, Kenya Commercial Bank, the Jomo Kenyatta Foundation, and national government for rescuing vulnerable children,” Owili said.
He said Nyong’o's administration has since 2017 been laying strong foundations for the pre-primary programmes.
Owili said they have established 674 public ECDEs and a similar number of private institutions under their jurisdiction.
“We are building more ECDEs to ensure every child has access to pre-primary education. We urge the beneficiaries to work hard and pass their national examinations so that they can be an example to others seeking similar assistance,” he said.
(Edited by Bilha Makokha)
