Beneficiaries of the 2017 Wings to Fly scholarships who sat for the 2020 KCSE exams have out-performed themselves registering an improvement in performance from the 2019 KCSE class. In the recently released results, 203 Wings to Fly scholars managed to score a mean grade of A plain (A) and A minus (A-), forming part of the 7,313 finalists who topped in the national exams.
Of the 203, 18 scored a mean grade of A plain (A) and 185 scored A-, while 1,410 out of a registered class of 1,640 attained university qualifying grades; representing a university transition rate of 86 percent. The highest transition rate for the program over the last 5 years.
Additionally, despite the challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, 1,640 scholars managed to sit for their KCSE exams out of a class of the 1,680 scholars who joined in 2017 representing a 98 percent completion rate.
In 2020, Equity Group Foundation (EGF) partnered with Mastercard Foundation to provide over 14,600 Wings to Fly, Elimu and TVET scholarship beneficiaries with a monthly stipend of Ksh3,000, a transistor radio-cum-solar lamp and psychosocial support as part of efforts to cushion the scholars from the adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr. James Mwangi, the Group’s CEO said they made the deliberate effort to support these young scholars during the unprecedented times and our efforts have paid off. He added that the top performing students from this cohort have been invited to join the Equity Leaders Program (ELP) College Counselling Program where they will receive coaching on how to apply and secure admission with scholarship to leading global institutions.
This year’s Wings to Fly finalists bring the total number of scholars examined so far to 13,568 with 10,991 attaining a mean grade of C+ and above. Overall, 83 percent of Wings to Fly scholars have attained university level grades since inception of the program in 2010 compared to the national transition rate of 20.6 percent.
During the April school break, the Wings to Fly scholars participated in the ongoing tree planting exercises coordinated by Equity through its 190 branches as part of community give-back initiatives and in support of Equity Group’s 35 million trees, tree-planting initiative.
