Relief for Kilifi Parents as Over 2,000 Grade 10 Learners Secure County Scholarships.

Parents in Kilifi County have got reprieve after more than 2,000 Grade 10 learners were absorbed into the County full scholarship program.

The County has this year set aside Sh. 150 million for the program that targets bright and needy students transitioning to Grade 10 after a successful Kenya Junior Secondary Education Assessment (KJSEA) examination, according to Education and ICT County Executive Committee Member (CECM) Felkin Kaingu.

“The full scholarship budget is Sh. 150 million for national schools alone and we also have a Sh. 350 million ward scholarship fund bringing the total scholarship to Sh. 500 million,” he said.

He added that, “We will continue with this full scholarship program even beyond the term of governor Gideon Mung’aro so that it can be a continuous project since we want all deserving learners in Kilifi County to pursue their education without hitches.”

The scholarship that targets orphans, those from single-parent households, those living with disabilities and those from low-income families however, has qualifications pegged at a minimum of 61 points in the KJSEA examinations for beneficiaries.

Kaingu also announced that the County had also set aside Sh. 57 million to cater for Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE) learners and parents will not be paying school fees.

“And because we must nurture education from a tender age, we will pay Sh. 900 for each and every ECDE learner so that they can start their education on a strong foundation,” he said.

Samuel Mumba, a parent whose daughter is a continuing student of the program said that the initiative started three years ago had brought a sigh of relief to residents and specifically those from extremely poor backgrounds.

“I heard this scholarship will go all the way to university and if that is true, then as residents we will be very happy and also feel that devolution is really working,” he said.

Nickson Muramba, the political advisor to the governor acknowledged that disbursement of funds from the national treasury had threatened the program but the County had come up with measures to ensure that learning is not disrupted because of the delays.

“When we started the program, there were a lot of challenges with disbursement of funds but we have resolved that by engaging the head teachers and school administrations and they have all agreed to be patient whenever there is a delay in disbursement of county funds. We just write them an official letter for commitment purposes,” said Muramba.