Harmonize the support to the needy

The Sunday Nation of 7^th January carried a list of bright and needy KCPE graduates who needs to join secondary school but are plagued by lack of fees either as a result of abject poverty or through death of their parents and sponsors. According to the profile, the lowest of the pupils had 304 marks and some had as high as 421 marks out of the 500 possible marks. Some had done the KCPE multiple times with the hope of securing form one place but again the same factors that have been staring at their career are still stalking them and it is only the well-wishers who can rescue them from such a trap. Article 43 1 (f) of the Constitution of Kenya guarantees every child free and compulsory education, hence the various schemes and programmes by the Government should be seen as fulfilling this constitutional right. The other attempt is through the bursary schemes in the country, which must be fixed and made to work effectively so as to benefit such needy students. Bursaries should be more harmonized or arranged in a manner that ensures efficiency in its allocation. The bursary should be disbursed in a manner that ensures that the needy and vulnerable students benefit directly so as to fulfil their dreams.

Five things should be operationalized in the bursary and scholarship process. First, there should have clear and transparent guidelines for application so that those who qualify as needy students are the ones that the system captures. The eligibility criteria should be clear including inbuilt mechanisms to determine the socio-economic status of the applicants. Secondly, the process should have inbuilt efficiency in the application and selection process that ensures that only the needy are selected and awarded the bursaries and scholarships. Thirdly, there should be fair and impartial evaluation process once the applications are done. The evaluation committee should have membership drawn from diverse backgrounds and expertise; they should be free of bias and use of blind review process where the applicants’ names are anonymous and hence making the process as bias free as possible. Fourth, there should be timely communication to the beneficiaries and all the applicants on the next steps, including regrets and reasons for the same. Fifth, the stewardship and reporting should be embedded in the entire process including disclosing the source of the funds, in most cases it is from the National or County Governments or other donors. There is need to state publicly the amounts allocated and also to track the performance of the recipients in future so as to measure the effectiveness and efficiency of the bursaries and education support. Dr Giti is an urban management, public – private partnerships (PPP) and environment specialist. mutegigiti@gmail.com , @danielgiti