The Ministry of Education has extended the deadline for the application of loans and scholarships for freshmen after 40 percent of them failed to apply by Tuesday’s deadline.
The government says so far only 156,532 students have applied for the scholarship as of Wednesday, ahead of the September 7 deadline.
The ministry has now extended the deadline to October 7 to allow those who are yet to make the application to do so.
“As of September 5, a total of 153,532 students had applied for both university funds scholarship and Higher
Education Loans Board loan. This translates to 60 percent of students placed by the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Services based on the 2022 KCSE examination,” says Education CS Ezekiel Machogu.
This means that 40 percent of potential total applicants of 265,000 are yet to apply for the funds as of Tuesday.
“The application period for loans and scholarships that was to lapse on September 7, 2023, has now been extended to October 7, 2023,” the CS said.
The ministry has directed HELB to review its website to ensure that 2,000 students who are yet to attain the age of 18 are able to apply for the funds, following a cabinet directive last month that waived the mandatory requirement for an identity card before one can access the funds.
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