Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu has hailed the Equity Group Foundation (EGF) for enabling hundreds of students from poor family backgrounds to secure secondary and higher education.
Mr Machogu said the organisation’s Wings to Fly Scholarship Programme has enabled many students to make remarkable contributions both locally and internationally as professional in different fields.
The Cabinet Secretary made the remarks when the Executive Director of EGF, Dr James Mwangi made a courtesy call on him in his office Thursday.
Present during the occasion were State Department for Basic Education,Principal Secretary Dr Belio Kipsang, State Department for Higher Education and Research Principal Secretary Dr Beatrice Muganda Inyangala.
Dr. Mwangi thanked the government for the support it had accorded EGF, saying the support had enabled it to give scholarship to hundreds of children over the years since it was established.
He said some 17,000 of the students have accessed University education 3,400 of whom have already completed university Education.
Mwangi said 871 of the students have secured scholarships in universities in the USA, with 218 of them in Ivy Universities in the USA.
Dr Mwangi said the foundation has created a programme to provide a pathway for 14 percent of the students who don’t attain the minimum qualifications for University Education to access scholarships to undertake courses at Technical and Vocational Training colleges.
Dr Kipsang said the programme, now in its fifteenth year, had changed the lives of hundreds of children and thanked EGF for the philanthropic gesture.
Dr Inyangala asked EGF to partner with the government to train instructors saying the training will sharpen their ability to provide first-rate training experience to students undertaking courses in TVET.
The Wings to Fly scholarship programme, an initiative of the Equity Group and Mastercard Foundation (MCF), supports secondary education for top performing children from financially challenged backgrounds.
The programme offers comprehensive support for the scholars through provision of tuition fees, accommodation, books, uniform, shopping, pocket money and transport to and from school during their 4 years of secondary education.
By Hamdi Mohamud
