Narok County Government has set aside Sh70 million as bursaries for needy children aimed at ensuring that the county achieve a 100 per cent transition to secondary schools.
The area Governor Samuel Tunai said the money will benefit only the needy parents who struggle to place a plate of food on the table, so that their children can join the secondary schools of their choice.
He reiterated that no child in the county should remain at home because of lack of school fees, regardless of their performance, ethnic or religious background.
“We are committed to 100 per cent transition as schools reopen in a few weeks’ time. No child in our county should be left behind as their peers go to school,” he said.
“Even those girls who became mothers before they complete their studies, we encourage them to go back to school to achieve their dreams,” he said.
Tunai spoke at Oronkai Le Pirarr village in Trans Mara South Sub County, where he called on the education department to follow closely to ensure all school going children report back to school.
Tunai called on the residents to shun retrogressive cultural practices like Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), widely believed to be the major cause of teenage pregnancies and school dropout.
According to a report released by United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), over 32, 000 school going children in the county were out of school in the year 2021.
Narok South Sub-county had the highest out of school children at 10, 580 followed by Narok West at 9, 590 while in Narok East-sub county had 3680 school going children who were not in school.
The survey showed that most out of school children were in grazing fields, entertainment joints, boda boda sector and in cultural events.
Some of the interventions proposed in the report to maintain the children in school include introduction of school feeding programmes in all public primary schools, low cost boarding schools, provision of sanitary towels and empowerment of women.
By Ann Salaton
