The University Fund Kenya on Monday revealed that students seeking to join the university in September 2024 and don't have a National Identity Card risked losing on government scholarship.
This was revealed following an enquiry by Principal Secretary, State Department for Higher Education and Research Beatrice Inyangala.
Inyangala asked the government body to reply after concerns from Kenyans that young students were unable to apply for funding through the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB).
A section of Kenyans had stated that the government had delayed the issuance of ID cards making it impractically impossible for the students to apply for scholarships.
The University Fund revealed that young Kenyans yet to attain the age of 18 years could still go ahead and apply for the scholarship.
The loan application portal allows the students to circumvent the ID requirement by allowing the prospective undergraduates to key in their Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) Index number instead.
This option will not work for students who are above 18 years old and are yet to get their national IDs.
“Those who have applied for IDs and are still waiting for them to be processed will have to be patient for they will require the IDs to apply for the scholarship,” the agency responded.
Speaking to Kenyans.co.ke, a guardian had conveyed his frustration that a student under their care was poised to miss higher education.
“We applied for the ID in February and despite numerous follow-ups, we have been unable to receive it,” he explained.
The student expected to start her higher education journey starting September 2024, has been accepted to one of the public universities and the fee is over Ksh300,000 which the family cannot afford.
“We tried to see if we could use the index number route but it failed. The Ministry of Education has all the data for every KCSE student and when you key in Index Number instead of ID Number you get a response that the student is already over 18 years old,” he explained.
