Ezekiel Machogu
The national government on Wednesday released Ksh30.5 billion to cover secondary school fees loans and scholarships for students in universities.
In a statement, Education CS Ezekiel Machogu announced that the funds would be received in schools before they break for the April holidays next week.
According to Machogu, Ksh7 billion will be used for public schools at the Junior Secondary School level while Sh16 billion will be used for capitation grants under the Free Day Secondary School education program.
Ksh 6.794 billion will go to the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) while the remaining Ksh 3.98 billion will be disbursed for scholarships through the Universities Fund (UF).
In January this year, the government released Ksh 14.4 billion to cover bursaries and loans for government-sponsored first-year university students under the New Higher Education Funding Model.
The loans also covered loans for the second semester of the 2023/2024 academic year for continuing students.
In October last year, the government disbursed Ksh5.3 billion for student loans and another Ksh3.9 billion for bursaries for first-year students under the New Funding Model, and Ksh10.3 billion was released to the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) in September 2023 to cover loans for continuing students in universities and TVET colleges.
Under the new higher education funding model, the Universities Fund will disburse funds directly to individual universities for successful candidates to cover their tuition fees.
HELB, on its part, will disburse tuition loans directly to the respective universities/colleges and maintenance loans to the respective students’ bank accounts or mobile phone numbers. The universities will receive the scholarship portions for their respective students.
“The categorization of the students was done through a reliable scientific method, Means Testing Instrument (MTI), which is used to determine the level of financial need of the students to ensure that they are adequately supported,” CS Machogu added.
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