All public primary and secondary schools within the Nairobi City County will be supplied with computers and internet connection, Governor Mike Sonko has said.
Sonko said by next term, all students in public schools will be enjoying free internet connectivity for research and computer studies.
He said this is in line with ensuring quality modern education to the millions of Nairobi children.
“We will from next term have internet connectivity in all public primary and secondary schools within Nairobi. We are committed to ensuring the project succeeds,” he said.
Over 70,000 poor, bright children from Nairobi have benefited from over Sh300 million disbursement of executive bursary cheque by Governor Sonko at City Hall on Wednesday.
Sonko said to fix the problems of Nairobi, he must first begin at fixing the education sector. He said his government has increased the allocation towards the ward bursaries from Sh3million, which that was not honoured fully by the previous administration, to the current Sh3.5 million per ward.
He said each of the 85 wards received the Sh3.5 million fully.
“I have also paid in full for the 1,000 children who joined Form One this year,” said Sonko.
He said all the 70,000 students, who will benefit from the Sh200 million bursary scheme, have been vetted, and only the genuine ones will benefit.
The previous administration, which had begun the bursary scheme, failed to actualize the programme because of corruption and favoritism.
Last Friday, Sonko launched the Free Early Childhood Development Education programme. Sonko became the first governor in the country to implement such programme.
The programme is expected to increase the enrollment of students in the ECD from the current 15,295 children to about 17,000 children by the close of the year.
“To demonstrate the seriousness with which my government takes the responsibility of ECDE, Sh3,815 grant per child is already in the respective school accounts,” said Sonko.
To maintain high-quality standards of Education, Sonko’s government has also finalised the advertisement for the employment of 520 ECDE teachers to be deployed to the 205 ECD centres.
On the issue of street children, the Governor said, it has continued to bother him seeing children within the streets of Nairobi and he’s committed in ensuring that they are taken back to school.
“Since taking over office, I have rehabilitated over 500 boys and girls who have now been enrolled in various schools in and out of the city,” said Sonko. He thanked the heads of schools who have continued to support the Nairobi government by admitting these children unconditionally.
Over 1,200 youth are also expected to benefit from scholarships to equip them with skills in order to tackle the issue of unemployment. Others present during the function were; ICT Executive Emmah Mukuhi, Lands Executive Charles Kerich, Education Executive Janet Ouko, Vesca Kangongo among others.