in Machakos.
Thirty two (32) pupils from Machakos County have been selected for the Equity Wings to Fly scholarship in a highly competitive process that attracted hundreds of applicants.
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| Equity's Ms Hellen Muthoki and Sub- County Director Simon Mutemi pose with the beneficiaries |
In Machakos Sub-county, eight successful Wings to Fly scholarship beneficiaries were selected from a list of 325 applicants.
The successful pupils were on Wednesday flagged of by the Sub-county Director of Education Simon Mutemi and Equity Business Growth and Development Manager Hellen Muthoki to join their fellows at Pangani Girls Nairobi where all the awardees from across the country will meet for a three day induction workshop.
The beneficiaries have received admission letters to various national schools across the country.
Ms Muthoki said although the cut off mark for the scholarship was 350 marks, the selection process was so competitive that the beneficiary with the least marks had 371 marks in the 2022 K.C.P.E Exam.
She however urged the needy applicants who did not get the Wings to Fly scholarship not to give up hope but to apply for the Elimu Scholarship which is now open for application up to 23rd of this month.
Muslim Faith representative Sheik Annas Abdallah who is a member of the Community Selection Board said the selection process was fair.
He observed that some children with very high marks had received admission letters to some national schools far from the their homes and that some of the schools did not deserve the title of 'national schools' since they lacked vital facilities.
Mr Abdallah said such placements were causing more problems for pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds since they lacked finances to travel over long distances.
"We urge the government to be considerate while placing pupils from poor backgrounds to far away schools. If the pupils lack basic needs at home how are they going to manage to join schools far away from home?"posed Mr Abdallah.
The Wings to Fly scholarship is a comprehensive package that includes tuition fees, shopping and pocket money for four years of secondary School.
