Narok County government has spent Sh1.3 billion on school bursaries in the last three years in supporting needy students in secondary schools and tertiary institutions, Governor Patrick ole Ntutu has said.

This even as he supported the plan of consolidating all the bursaries into one kitty so long as, the move will ensure all learners get free education. Appearing before the Senate Education committee, chaired by Betty Montet (nominated), the Narok county chief told the committee that the total enrolment for Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE) in the county stands at 80,144 learners.

This even as the indicative cost of providing basic ECDE infrastructure in Narok County including construction, furnishing and essential facilities varies depending on the scale of a specific project with an average cost Sh35,837 per pupil for infrastructure.

“The Sh35, 837 includes the provision of essential facilities such as classrooms, age-appropriate toilet facilities compliant with public health regulations and basic educational instructional resources which include approved textbooks,” said Ntutu.

ECDE centres

Narok County has 66,376 are enrolled in public ECDE centres managed by the county government while 13,768 pupils are enrolled in private ECDE centres. Ntutu told Senators that he did not have a problem with the government consolidating all the bursaries and having them in one kitty.

“I do not have a problem with having one bursary kitty. Narok is one of the vast Counties in Kenya, with the majority of the residents being pastoralists. If I was not providing bursaries, so many students would not go to school.” He went on: “As long as the bursary put in one kitty is going to help all the students, I do not have a problem. Some areas of Narok is semi-arid with low levels of those going to school being recorded. The bursaries offered over the years have encouraged more students to complete their studies.”

Ntutu’s response comes after Laikipia Senator John Kinyua raised concerns as to why the budget for bursaries was higher than for Technical and Vocational Education and Training for the last three years. Kinyua cited that the current financial year, Ntutu has allocated Sh600 million for bursaries of students in secondary schools while TVET students have been allocated Sh123 million.

In his response, the Governor said that the education sector in the county had been allocated in the financial year 2022/2023 Sh1.9 billion, while in the financial year 2023/2024 it got Sh1.7 billion and in the financial year 2024/ 2025 it got Sh2billion with focus being to improve learning.

“I would like to inform the Senate that I normally liaise with Members of National Assembly and Members of County Assembly so as to ensure that we do not have double allocation of bursaries so as to ensure that as many students as possible benefit from these programmes,” said Ntutu.

The committee’s vice chair Margaret Kamar (nominated) took the governor to task to explain why the county does not have a feeding programme for ECDE. Kamar was of the opinion that while other counties are spending millions on school feeding programmes to ensure that the majority of the children not only get quality education, but also a meal