Parents decry delay in disbursing bursaries by Mombasa county

Mombasa Governor Abdulswamad Nassir pledged to issue bursaries to private secondary school students. [File, Standard]

Mombasa private secondary schools and parents have appealed to the county government to release bursaries for more than 10,000 students pledged by Governor Abdulswamad Nassir last year.

The school managers said they have been clashing with parents over uncertainty of the more than Sh40 million bursary that was to be released in the second term last year.

Kenya Private Schools Association (KPSA) Mombasa branch secretary Peter Otieno said some parents have confronted teachers demanding issuance of receipts, believing that the money had been released by the county government.

Otieno said that although Governor Nassir pledged to issue bursaries to private secondary school students last year, the money has not been received by the schools.

Addressing a press conference in Mombasa on Wednesday, Otieno said the bursary was to cater for about 80 per cent of the students’ school fees.

“There has been confusion in private secondary schools since the pledge was made. Some students have dropped out because their parents are reluctant to pay school fees and are demanding receipts from school directors, insisting that the county government has released bursaries. We are asking these parents to hold on,” he said.

But the County Executive Committee Member (CECM) for Education Kame Mbwarali said they are waiting for a supplementary budget to allocate the bursaries.

Dr Mbwarali advised parents who cannot afford school fees in private secondary schools to take their children to public schools which also offer free lunch.

"If the parents have the burden of raising school fees, they can opt for public schools which are affordable," he said.

Otieno warned that some students who are idling at home have opted for early marriage while other are indulging in drugs.

He expressed fear over possible poor performance among students in private secondary schools in the next national examinations following the disruption of learning over the bursary crisis and called for urgent intervention.

However, KPSA Mombasa branch chairman Elisha Mwango said he has held meetings with Governor Nassir and parents should wait for the bursary to be released instead of harassing school managers.

“There is an outcry over whether the bursaries for private secondary schools have been released or not. For now, there is no private secondary school that has received money from the county government. We have had sittings with the governor and I can confirm that the money is yet to be released,” he said.

A parent from Changamwe subcounty in Mombasa Khadija Khamis wondered why private secondary schools have been sidelined in the allocation of bursaries and yet students in public secondary schools benefited from the public funds.

“Our children in private secondary schools are suffering because they have not been issued with bursaries and their learning has been disrupted. Some of them face the risk of indulging in drugs,” she noted.

Another parent Mr Hamony Alemu said he has been visiting his child’s school but it is yet to receive the bursary.