By Nicholas Anyuor
Migori County Government has launched a Sh20-million scholarship for 200 students from needy backgrounds who scored more than 350 marks in this year’s Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examinations.
This brings to 1000 such students who will be benefiting from the Governor’s Scholarship programme that was started by Governor Zachary Okoth Obado in 2015. The county government is currently spending Sh80 million every year for the initiative.
The County boss further said the programme seeks to realize the sustainable development goals and create a pool of professionals in Migori County for the future.
Apart from the Governor’s Scholarship, the county government of Migori is also running ward bursary programme in all the 40 wards where more than 20, 000 students are currently beneficiaries.
“It is also to note that apart from the Governor’s Scholarship, my government also runs ward bursary programme in all wards. I need to encourage the applicants who did not qualify to benefit from our Governor’s Scholarship programme to seek other avenues such as the ward bursary fund and other funds which offer similar opportunities,” he added.
This year, the first cohort of the progrmme sat their Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) in various schools and more than 100 scored university grades.
In the first selection in 2015, the county government took 200 needy students to secondary schools, but only 148 of the beneficiaries sat for this year’s KCSE.
“148 of our beneficiaries sat their KCSE this year out of which 106 will be admitted directly to public universities, a pass of 73 per cent,” Obado added.
The governor however hinted at the challenges that has faced the programme and said must be addressed urgently. He directed the county’s Department of Education to come up with policy that will address affirmative action issues such as gender, equity, disability and marginalization.
“Further the department must come up with an effective monitoring and evaluation tool that will enhance consistent monitoring, reward systems, guidance and counseling to make sure that only the beneficiaries who performed to our expectations are sustained in the programme,” he said.
Juliet Were, the girl who topped in this year’s KCSE and attended the launch of the governor’s scholarship for 2019 at Migori Stadium, challenged the scholarship beneficiaries to work hard in order to pass their KCSE examinations in future.
“The only way to make this noble initiative work is when the beneficiaries work hard to attain best grades at KCSE. You are all capable and you can manage any grade. Don’t disappoint the governor,” she said.
