School dropouts from Kakuyuni ward in Malindi Sub County, Kilifi County have benefited from a Sh. million full scholarships to study at a local technical training centre.
The 300 students that either dropped out of school or secondary school will have their school fees paid for by the Kakuyuni ward scholarship fund after area MCA said that parents will only carter for their children uniforms.
Fahamu Karisa, 25 years who has been out of school for more than four years got a sigh of relief when she received information that she was among the 300 selected students and said that she will work had in her course so that she becomes a successful fashion designer.
“I have gone through a lot of problems in my education journes. When I completed standard eight, I stayed home for one year since my parents could not afford to pay the secondary school fees and I joined form one after I got a bursary from the Malindi CDF. I again stayed home for close to a year midway before I got another bursary help that helped me complete form four,” she said.
She added that she picked her KCSE certificate from her former school but could not join a tertiary institution due to lack of money.
David Yaa who could not proceed to secondary school for lack of school fees said that he was lucky to be selected among the pioneer students of the vocational centre and promised to put in more effort in class so that he could be self reliant in his future life.
“I thank the MCA for this position because it is been long since I completed primary school and could not join any secondary school for lack of money. I will major in wiring so that I become an electrician in future,” he said.
Area MCA Nickson Muramba said that the ward scholarship committee had concentrated on sponsoring students in secondary school and universities leaving out those who were to join vocational training institutions.
“All these years we have had the scholarship fund but we concentrated on Secondary schools and colleges students yet that is outside our mandate as a county government. Our core mandate is ECDE and polytechnics so that we can tap those who do not manage to proceed to either secondary or university,” he said.
He added that this year the fund will spent Sh. 5 million for the 300 students and hope to increase the funding to cover more students.
“We shall pay full scholarship of Sh. 18,000 for each course per student for the one year study period but that will be paid in installments. In 2014 we paid for 68 students at the Malindi Institute of Business Studies and spent Sh. 10 million and they completed. This is a pilot project here,” he added.
The centre offers courses such as carpentry and joinery, electrical wiring, hairdressing and beauty therapy, ICT, motor vehicle mechanic, plumping and pipefitting, tailoring and dressmaking and masonry.