Equity Group Foundation will give 2,000 comprehensive scholarships to needy but bright students who excelled in this year’s KCPE.
The Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) results were released on Wednesday.
The comprehensive secondary school scholarships under the Equity Group Foundation’s Wings To Fly Program are designed to provide financial and related relief to academic achievers from financially constrained backgrounds who would otherwise not afford to join Form 1 without financial support.
Apart from school fees settlement, the Wings To Fly program scholarships cater for transport, pocket money, shopping, books and uniform costs for students countrywide, through their four-year secondary school education.
Speaking when she confirmed the Wings To Fly 2016 Class, the Foundation’s Managing Director, Hellen Gichohi said that the release of the KCPE results will also automatically open the application period for the Wings To Fly scholarship running from December 30 to January 6.
This year, the eligibility cut-off points for students wishing to be considered for the Wings To Fly Comprehensive scholarship has been set at 350 marks.
“We encourage the potential applicants, as soon as the results are announced, to present themselves to the nearest Equity Bank Branch or Equity Agent with their KCPE result slips and a letter of introduction from their respective head teachers confirming their results to be issued with the Scholarships Application forms,” Gichohi said.
Shortlisted students, she added, will be invited for interviews which will be conducted by the Equity Group Foundation Regional Scholarship Selection Board (RSSB).
The RSSB comprises of at least 12 local community stakeholders, two of who must be women, including chiefs, educationists, civil society leaders, Equity Agent representatives and religious leaders in the County and is chaired by the County Education Officer (CEO) and coordinated by the respective Equity Branch Managers.
The shortlisting of the beneficiaries will be done on January 7, 2016 followed by interviews on January 8 and 9, 2016. Thereafter, home visits will be between January 10 and 13.
The 2016 Wings To Fly cohort will all travel to Nairobi for induction the same day January 15, 2016, as part of their preparations to later go to the respective schools.
Now on its seventh edition, the Wings To Fly Comprehensive scholarship program has been implemented by Equity Group Foundation (EGF) through a fund created by a partnership between Equity Group Foundation and The MasterCard Foundation (MCF) with support from USAID, KfW, PEPFAR, UKAID and generous contributions from individuals and corporates.
The scholarship support program for top performing yet needy (orphan or vulnerable) is meant for students in the counties across Kenya.
Its objective is to provide financial support and leadership empowerment tools to such students.
Equity Group Foundation was established by Equity Bank to create the financial and operational infrastructure for social programs aimed at low-income populations.