Gorvernment urged to issue timely bursary to needy students
Primary school head teachers from Kiambu County have urged the government issue timely bursaries to needy students joining form one.
They said it would be pointless to allocate bursaries to learners months after they have received admission letters noting that their places are normally taken by students from well to do backgrounds.
They also called for a bursary increase noting that at times, needy students are given very small amounts which end up as waste.
Led by Githunguri Township Primary school head teacher Paul Mbugua, they regretted that exorbitant school fees charged by national schools normally ruin the dreams of thousands of bright but needy learners and urged the government to address the same.
"Tens of pupils who posted impressive marks in my school for instance are from very poor backgrounds while others are orphans and they may not realize their dreams unless sponsored through bursaries. The same replicates across the board," said Paul Mbugua.
He said poverty among parents which has been worsened by the Covid-19 pandemic should not be allowed to dim the dreams of the 2020 KCPE stars.
"Giving a needy student as little as Sh 5,000 as bursary while the entire school fees is close to Sh100,000 is pointless. The learner ends up dropping out of school," he said.
His Githunguri Township Primary School emerged the best public school in Kiambu county n the recently released Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) exam.
The 2020 KCPE candidature was 111, boys 49 and girls 62 where 34 pupils scored 400 marks and above.
Only 1 pupil scored less than 250 mark while only 7 missed the 300 mark.
The school registered a mean score of 377.3 a rise of +11.3 from previous mean of 366 last year.
Among the best performers were Elsie Muthoni Mwangi 424, Samuel Nyota Karanja 422, Wanguku Barbara Wamaitha 422, Daniel Kinyanjui Njenga 422, Gracel Wambui Irungu 420 and Sharon Nyaguthii Kiragu 420.
The school elbowed 1225 schools in the county which comprises of 576 public and 349 private facilities to become the top school in both categories.
He attributed the good performance to hard work and hurdles less co-operation between teachers and learners as well as other players in the education sector.
The head teacher observed that learners had resilience and inspirations of triumph over adversity adding that the same saw public schools outshining the private ones.
"The public candidates performed very well despite months of disruption by the Covid 19 scourge and that's infact why 73 per cent of them were from public institutions," he said.
