Kiambu County will in the next financial year increase bursary allocation for secondary and college education to Sh 500 million, up from the Sh 300 million that was given this year, Governor Kimani Wamatangi has announced.
The governor said his administration has now tripled the bursary allocation from Sh100 million in February to an additional Sh100 million in June and another Sh100 million in November, making it Sh300 million, thereby removing financial obstacles that hindered countless needy children from accessing education.
“Kiambu is among the highest counties on the allocation of bursaries in the country, and come next January, we will be issuing the bursaries at an upward trend of Sh 500 million, and I want to categorically say here that the minimum bursary to be allocated will be Sh 5000 per student and not Sh 2000 as before,” he said.
Speaking on some of the developments that he is focusing on in the education sector, the governor noted that he has initiated the construction of 180 modern ECDE centres with PP1 and PP2 classrooms, offices, ablution blocks, and playgrounds, and this marks the first step in modernising all 524 ECDE centres in the County within three years.
A feeding programme for ECDE pupils has also been introduced, the Governor said, noting that children will be receiving a bowl of porridge daily, three boiled eggs weekly, and a packet of milk every Thursday to boost their potential to learn and thrive.
“The three eggs, the governor said, will be distributed and sold to the County Government at Sh 18 for an egg, and this will be done by women who have been empowered through a programme of providing them with one-month-old local breed chicks.
“We aim to distribute 120,000 chicks across 12 sub-counties and target these women as future egg suppliers to support our ECDEs feeding programme,” the governor said.
Still, in the education sector, Wamatangi said that they have revived the stalled Vocational Training Centre (VTC) construction to enable skill development and empower the youth.
“The plan is to establish a VTC in every ward, ensuring avenues for youth to acquire technical skills,” he said, adding that the county will also donate used vehicles to the youth to be used for training for those undertaking mechanical courses.
Other support will be investing and buying machines for making Cabros concrete blocks, and the county government will be distributing materials for producing the cabros and, in turn, buying the product from the trainees.
By Wangari Ndirangu
