Five hundred students who sat for the 2019 Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) Examination from Busia County will benefit from Sh20billion Elimu scholarship fund.
Elimu Scholarship program is a national government run education scholarship funded by the World Bank through the Ministry of Education and the Equity Group Foundation.
A total of 9000 students in 110 sub counties across the country will benefit from the program.
The scholarship seeks to improve secondary education in Kenya.
It takes care of school fees, transport and learning materials.
The exercise started on Monday across the country with hundreds of students who scored 280 marks and above in KCPE turning up for the exercise in various centers.
At St Stephen’s Anglican Church Busia, over 200 students from Matayos Sub County turned up for the exercise to compete for 87 slots allocated to the Sub County.
Deputy County Commissioner Joseph Onyango who is the chairman of the Community Scholarships Advisory Committee said they will interview 120 students on Monday and the remaining on Tuesday.
“ From December 27th, 2019 the committee will start visiting the homes of shortlisted students to assess the needy status; the final list will then be submitted to Equity Group which is running the program on behalf of the Government and using the Wings to Fly model,” he said.
A parent of one of the applicants, Mary Oduor thanked the government for introducing the program and called for fairness in the selection process.
She said children who are orphans and those with disabilities need to be given preferential treatment, noting that offering scholarships to able people beats logic.
A student Oduor Wanyama Nathaniel who scored 338 marks at Igero Primary and is set to join Salvation Army Kolanya Boys High School, said he will study hard if the Government will offer him full scholarship.
Butula has been given 100 slots, Samia 73, Bunyala 45 Nambale 77, while Teso region will share 198 slots.
The committee includes Sub County Director of Education, Chief, Sub County Children’s Officer, NG CDF Chair, Equity Bank, Teachers Service Commission, KEPSHA, Parents Association and Sub County Administrator representing the County Government.