Tuition Assistance
In 2003, the Kenyan government adopted a national program of universal primary education. While laudatory in its objectives and impressive in its results, government-sponsored primary education has not solved the historic underrepresentation of Maasai children in primary schools for several reasons. First, schoolchildren must still provide their own uniforms, a significant burden on financially challenged Maasai families. Second, students at government-funded boarding schools must still pay fees for their room and board.
Since 2007, MCI has paid the room and boarding fees of five adolescent girls at the Sianna Boarding School who face the prospect of dropping out of school if they can not find boarding and tuition money. Tuition for the school is 3,000 shillings, or $50, for three months. In 2008, MCI paid room and board fees for 65 students who were about to be sent home for lack of boarding and tuition money. Sending the students home would have interrupted the continuity of their learning and pushed them behind schedule. A description of this remarkable school and narrative of the incident is contained in an article by Matthew Bergman that appeared in The Huffington Post.
MCI also pays school fees and provides uniforms for needy students at Oloigero School. Further, MCI purchased sewing machines and fabric and hires Maasai women to sew school uniforms for financially needy students. Finally, MCI provides tuition assistance to individual students who demonstrate extreme financial need or profound academic potential. A heartwarming story of one student who benefitted from MCI’s tuition assistance appeared in the Huffington Post in March 2009.