Scores of pupils who sat their 2023 Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examinations and got good grades are staring at a bleak future due to poverty.
15 pupils from poor families in Mwariki within Nakuru Town West Sub-County who sat their KCPE now risk losing their Form One admissions.
Parents and guardians of the affected students say they have tried applying for bursaries in vain and their hopes are fast fading. And without financial support, the dreams of their children pursuing secondary education hangs on a cliff.
Parents are required to raise over Sh54,000 and Sh40,000 yearly for national and extra-county schools respectively. This amount is exclusive of other requirements and purchases prior to joining Form One. Cumulatively, the first term in Form One costs upward of Sh70,000.
According to Mr Simon Karanja, a teacher in one of the Primary schools within the Sub-County, most of the affected students come from very humble backgrounds and are raised by single parents who lack the financial wherewithal to pay fees despite the potential their children have to excel academically.
Mr Karanja raised concerns over selective award of bursaries by political leaders at both county and constituency levels and urged the national government to rethink how best to award bursaries.
He said the Ministry of Education is better placed to do that work in collaboration with school heads who know the individual needs of their students.
Mr Karanja said the plight of needy students countrywide have been worsened by governors, MPs, Woman Reps and Members of County Assemblies (MCAs) who have turned bursaries into political weapons.
The bursaries, according to the teacher, have become a mode of reward for supporters, cronies and loyalists and are powerful campaign tools that are mostly deployed with an eye on the votes and not necessarily to help the deserving.
The teacher was of the opinion that Members of Parliament should do what is expected of them by directing the National Government Constituencies Development Fund monies, to bursaries for needy students.
He said most of the affected students have lost hope of ever joining secondary school unless the government comes to their rescue.
Mr Karanja stated that it was heart-rending that a student can work extremely hard so as to join their dream schools – some of the most coveted in the country – but fail to do so due to lack of money.
Such students, the 56-year-old teacher indicated, need help to achieve their dreams. He observed that the 100 per cent transition from primary to secondary school will remain a pipe dream if such students fail to get help to join secondary school.
“It is commendable that some companies and even individual well-wishers have already sponsored some needy students to join Form One. However, much more needs to be done to ensure the many other students still stuck at home due to lack of money also achieve their dream,” he added.
For that reason, Mr Karanja noted more companies and even individuals should borrow a leaf from their peers and volunteer to bail out stranded students.
Esther Wambui, a single mother taking care of five kids, depends on menial jobs to eke out a living but the returns are meagre. She needs help to educate her 14-year-old daughter who scored 380 marks and was selected to join Naivasha Girls High School.
To Ms Wambui, the manner of administration of bursaries leaves them open to abuse. She said that it defeats logic that a governor, MP, Woman Representative and MCAs should all have allocations for bursaries.
She added that cases of favouritism in the issuance of bursaries abound and that in some instances, a beneficiary gets the bursaries from several sources, effectively denying other deserving cases a chance to get them.
Ms Wambui disclosed that she had tried several bursaries, including Elimu Foundation and the Equity’s Wings to Fly, but was not successful.
Nelly Adhiambo, whose daughter scored 398 and was selected to join Kapropita Girls High School, says she does manual labour and cannot afford to raise her daughter’s fee. She said that life has been hard as they struggle to get food and money for rent.
Ms Adhiambo noted that time has come for the government to rectify the glaring anomaly by taking bursaries away from politicians and, preferably, placing them under the Ministry of Education.
She indicated that the ministry is better placed to determine real needy cases from periodic reports generated by school heads across the country.
Jane Mukunda whose son got 407 marks and was called to join Nakuru boys is also uncertain whether the teenager will join the school. She sells second-hand clothes on the streets.
Ms Mukunda was of the opinion that it is time Parliament enacted a law to regulate the award of bursaries and scholarships to ensure all deserving cases are considered.
Such a law should, she noted among other issues, formulate clear guidelines that would make issuing of bursaries harmonised and ensure efficiency in allocation.
Ms Mukunda stated that the guidelines should ensure transparency, from the time a learner sends in an application to the time it is either accepted or rejected. She insisted that the current system is opaque and prone to abuse.
Joyce Wamuyu’s daughter scored 390 marks and was called to join Nakuru Day Secondary School. Ms Wamuyu is nursing hope that help will come to enable her 13-year-old daughter to join secondary school.
According to Ms Wamuyu, at the constituency level bursaries and scholarships have been used for political expediency where only learners from areas considered “politically friendly” to the MP or MCA are awarded.
A number of philanthropic Kenyans have started social media campaigns to enable such children get admission into school.
However, this is just a tip of the iceberg as many cases never get to the limelight, effectively sealing the fate of hundreds of students.