Some of the students who benefited from the Wings to Fly program by Equity Bank. (Photo. Kassfm.co.ke)
Equity Bank has reduced the number of students they award the Wings to Fly Scholarship from fifteen to eight per branch in the country.
Speaking in Bondo town during the award of the eight scholarships to the students who qualified, Bondo Equity Bank Operations Manager Javan Odera said the cut on the number of beneficiaries was attributed to the prevailing hard economic times.
The eight pupils whose secondary school education will be catered for by the scholarship, were selected through a fair process by the Community Scholarship Selection Board chaired by the area Director of Education.
Odera disclosed that they had received a total of 178 applications from which 24 pupils qualified for the scholarship and that the Wings to Fly program had up to the end of 2016 provided a total 14,168 scholarships to needy pupils across the country
Since 2013 the branch has been giving scholarships to 15 pupils annually but the number has been reduced by half because the program is currently experiencing economic challenges.
Odera who was flanked by the area Education Quality Assurance officer Patricia Oloo appealed to other institutions like Community Development Fund (CDF) and none state actors to sponsor the education of the 16 bright and needy pupils that did not benefit from the wings to fly scholarship.
On her part, Oloo who reiterated the call for more stakeholders to support the identified needy children disclosed that most children in the area opt to repeat class 8 with the hope of qualifying for the scholarship each year because they have no one to support their education.
She asked the parents and guardians of the beneficiaries not to abdicate their duties as parents especially now that their children have received full scholarships.
The quality officer on the other hand told the pupils to use the scholarship opportunity to work hard in school and uplift the economic standards of their households.