Governor Mwangaza, MP Mutunga disburse bursaries to needy students

Meru Governor Kawira Mwangaza issued bursaries for needy students at Kiagu in Central Imenti. [Phares Mutembei, Standard]

Thousands of needy students have received bursaries from the Meru County government and the National Government-Constituency Development Fund (NG-CDF).

Speaking separately, when they disbursed bursaries to schools, Meru Governor Kawira Mwangaza, who has set aside a Sh136 million bursary kitty and Tigania West MP John Mutunga who issued Sh63.3 million in bursaries, said no child should locked out as school reopen for the second term.

Mr Mutunga underscored the importance of setting aside a significant amount of money for education over the past five years, saying the mean scores in the constituency had significantly improvement.

“Our school principals have done very well, and our mean scores have improved commendably,” he said.

The MP said Tigania West, unlike some areas in Meru, does not have good climatic conditions for agriculture, hence the need to ensure children acquire education to benefit from other opportunities.

“We want our children to understand that it is only through education that living standards will be improved. We do not have reliable (rainfall) for agriculture to thrive, hence the need to get quality education,” Mutunga said.

He announced that they prioritise education in the constituency as per their five-year development plan.

At the same time, the legislator noted that the national government had placed education at the heart of its manifesto, with huge budgetary allocation.

“Education is taken very seriously in this country. Education is the greatest consumer of the national budget, more than Sh650 billion is quite significant,” he said.

Mutunga said the allocation represents at least 25 per cent of the budget.

He said the amendment to the NG-CDF law had increased bursary allocations from 35 per cent to 40 per cent.

The county government is issuing Sh3 million worth of bursaries for each of the Sh45 wards, with Governor Mwangaza promising to ease the financial burden on parents to boost school attendance.