The poor performance in the recently released 2016 KCSE examination results may be a blessing in disguise for Technical and Vocational Colleges, which have suffered a crunch in admissions for many years now.
The quest to market the TVCs to the critical mass numbers that fail to join universities over the years has been a daunting task.
Most students and parents view the technical colleges as a place for failures, as compared to joining universities, which lead to white-collar jobs.
In the 2015 KCSE results, 169,492 candidates scored grade C plus and above, the minimum university entry requirement, as compared to the 2016 results, where only 88,929 achieved this pass mark.
In the 2016 KCSE, 44,792 candidates scored a C plain, 61,026 C minus, 80, 951 D plus, 112,135 D plain, 149, 929 D minus, while a whopping 33, 399 got Es, six times as many as 2015’s 5, 350 Es.
During university admission last year for the 2015 KCSE candidates, the Kenya Universities Colleges Central Placement Service selected 74,389 students as government-sponsored students to public universities for the year 2016-17.
This number, however, was increased when the government, through KUCCPS, extended the sponsorship to 12,096 students joining private universities, brining the total of state-sponsored students to 86,485.
The ominous scenario this year is that the 88,929 who meet the university entry requirement will all join public universities, leaving private universities with zero numbers to rush for. A total of 577,253 candidates sat for the 2016 KCSE exams.
IMPACT ON PRIVATE VARSITIES
Attention, therefore, turns to what private universities will do to fill in their academic programme vacancies.
Prof James Tuitoek said: “It will be hard for the private varsities and those offering parallel programmes to get students to admit. The imminent risk is closure of especially some of the universities campuses.”
Knec national chairman Prof George Magoha said some universities, like Mt Kenya, Strathmore and Kenya School of Monetary Studies might survive, but a sizeable number that have relied on leftovers will have to fold.
The trick, though, is for private universities to mount quality, relevant and competitive academic programmes to attract the remainder of KCSE students.
Dr John Mugo, the Uwezo Kenya country coordinator, said: “Universities will suffer drastically with this performance, but market demands will play a key role here.”
He added that the strict administration and management of KCSE examination will eventually force universities to specialise in their academic programmes to meet the relevance of skills required by the market.
TECHNICAL TRAINING OPTION
As disturbing as the situation is, Education CS Fred Matiang’i notes that the large population of secondary school leavers still qualify for tertiary and technical training.
“The time has come for us to embrace the role of tertiary and technical training in national development,” he said.
“We must shift from the populist view of white-collar jobs, which are highly pegged on university degree qualifications, and focus more on skills-oriented approaches that equip our youth with practical skills,” Matiang’i said.
TVET Authority CEO Kipkirui Langat said the poor KCSE results belong to all Kenyans, such that the earlier we accept them, the better, in order to have a rational debate on how to accommodate students that will not join the coveted universities.
He said the TVET option is not failure in itself because there are some candidates who scored higher marks in KCSE but chose to join TVETs.
“TVET is driven by demand in the market, which requires skilled persons to support the economy,” Langat said.
He argued that TVET is all about making every Kenyan productive, including a Form Three dropout who is no different to a person who scored an E.
COLLEGES TURNED TO VARSITIES
Lately, the country has made historical policy mistakes of closing down middle-level colleges and turning them into universities.
The repercussion has been the lack of technical personnel in the job market, leading to an artificial demand for university education.
Matiang’i reveals that that the most horrific consequence of the demand is that more than 80 per cent of our enrolled university students are in the liberal arts and humanities courses, completely at variance with our current development needs.
“The massification of universities in our country has dealt a body blow to the quality of our university education,” Matiang’i said.
The CS pleaded for honesty as people discuss the KCSE results, saying we cannot continue to live a lie. “We have for a long while now and it is time to start an honest journey towards the right direction in developing our country,” he said.
The Kenya Vision 2030 champions a growing and inclusive economy, one that is fostered by strong knowledge-based sectors, particularly manufacturing and services. Achieving this vision will depend heavily on how well-equipped the graduates are with 21st century universal skills.
TVET CAPACITY
There is capacity for about 400,000 Form Four leavers in TVET institutions under various government ministries.
There are 64 operational Technical and Vocational Colleges (TVCs), out of which four are for trainees with special needs.
Since 2014, the government has constructed 60 TVCs, which are complete and ready to become operational.
An additional 70 TVCs are under construction and are expected to be completed by June 2017.
The government plans to have a TVC in each constituency. Apart from construction of new TVCs, the Education ministry is also equipping existing institutions with state-of-the-art training equipment to attract trainees and provide them with skills that match modern-day technology.
The ministry has an enrollment of about 140,000 trainees in the 64 operational TVCs. This number is expected to grow to about 200,000 following the ongoing rebranding of TVETs and operationalisation of other new colleges.
HELB FUNDING FOR TVETs
In 2015, of the 50,000 declared vacancies in various TVETs, only 12,000 applied to join TVET colleges, leaving an excess capacity of 38,000 places.
Students who apply for TVET also qualify for HELB loans. TVET students funded in 2015 were a dismal 11,000 (Sh396 million) against a government budget of Sh500m for 20,000 students.
This year, Helb has an allocation of Sh900 million targeting to educate 30,000 students.
Matiang’i asked other stakeholders to move in and encourage and support youths to join TVET institutions under the Education ministry, just like the Equity Bank, which has widened support to 2,900 youths to train in TVETs.
RESISTANCE TO REFORMS
Knut secretary general Wilson Sossion has demanded a forensic audit on the results and the processes to ascertain the authenticity of what he termed a predetermined marking that could end up as the biggest scandal in the country’s education sector”.
He accused some ministry officials of having been in a hurry to display that the war on cheating is being won.
But Matiang’i said any kind of reforms will always attract resistance. Sincere people will seek to dialogue while others plan hidden resistance out of unfounded fear, the CS said.