At least 1,700 needy students joining Form 1 and technical institutions next year will receive bursary funds from the county.
About 1,000 students — the top three in every public primary school in this year’s KCPE exam — will benefit from Governor Mike Sonko’s executive bursary. Some 700 will benefit from ward bursary funds.
Yesterday, Education executive Janet Ouko dispatched forms to the 85 wards so students can apply for the war bursary funds.
Parents and students will pick the forms from their ward offices. Some Sh285 million has been set aside for the ward bursary scheme and each ward is expected to receive Sh3.5 million. “This is a commitment towards making sure all children of Nairobi get an opportunity to advance their studies,” Ouko said.
She said the funds will be channeled electronically to beneficiaries’ bank accounts to prevent the problems in the past when cheques were issued.
“This will minimise a lot of challenges we had including the errors on the cheques like signatures. We have also given out the forms early enough for us to verify the accounts,” she said.
Ouko said each student will receive at least Sh5,000, though the figure may vary depending on the criteria used by MCAs to issue bursaries and status of the beneficiaries. The county grants full scholarships for 1,000 children. This will be released today, Ouko said.
In May, a number of MCAs and beneficiaries complained about the high number of dishonoured cheques due to conflicting signatures and name mismatches.
There were also claims that some MCAs banked the cheques in their companies or proxy accounts leading to loss of millions of shillings meant for students.
