•• Report paints a grim picture of the state of the workforce that will be required to drive President's agenda.
• Manufacturing and construction suffer the most, only attracting less than 1%. Business administration and education attract the most, collectively 35%.
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President Uhuru Kenyatta's Big Four agenda could suffer a human resource shortage after a report revealed students are not interested in related courses.
The report shows that manufacturing and construction suffer the most, only attracting less than one per cent of students to institutions.
Manufacturing is one pillar of the Big Four development agenda. The others are food security, affordable housing and universal healthcare.
Health, agriculture and science courses each attract less than six per cent of enrollment.
The report by the Commission for University Education and Kenya National Qualification Framework Authority was released last month.
CUE data reveals only 22 per cent of university students are pursuing courses that contribute to the Big Four.
With a university population of 650,000 students, this means only 143,000 are pursuing Big four-related courses.
University and Academic Staff Union secretary general Constantine Wasonga said a problem is poor facilities and laboratories to support science courses.
He said the situation worsens in higher levels of education such as the master's and doctorate level.
"If we are not going to correct faults in our education system, then we are not going to move forward. It will be a tale of the Israelites who wandered in the wilderness for 40 years yet they were on course to a promised land.
"We need to look into the learning facilities that are poorly equipped and the number of qualified staff," Wasonga said.
Popular courses
A glance into sectors that have grown in the last previous five years reveals a mismatch between university training and the sectors.
For example, the construction industry has an upward trend in economic growth at 13.5 per cent.
It followed by the Finance and Insurance industry at 9.9 per cent, then medical sciences and ICT at 8.9 and 8.8 per cent growth, respectively.
By contrast, business administration and Education (Arts) are the most popular courses, pulling a combined 35 per cent of students.
Fewer women
The ministry says there are fewer women than men, 35 against 65 per cent. Further, fewer women than men complete their studies. Their scores are also lower than men’s.
Unesco gender and science programme specialist Alice Ochanda explains that despite boys and girls sitting together in class, the gender gap still remains wide.
This has created a narrative that makes girls afraid to study the 'big scary sciences'.
Those courageous enough to take up science courses are not spared either as they are tagged tomboys and discriminated against.
The place of science-related subjects not only remains low but also is characterised by poor performance among girls.
Ochanda said it's necessary to shift and fix the false perception that girls are not as good as boys in science and maths.
"In order to fit in, some girls take up subjects in arts that are seen as feminine. Statistics reveal that only biological sciences attract almost an equal number of women and men "because of the nurturing nature girls are brought up in," Ochanda said.
The universal health coverage has been allocated Sh44.6 billion, while Sh6.5 billion will go towards affordable housing. About Sh20.25 billion has been allocated to enhance food and nutrition security by 2022.
The government has allocated Sh2.4 billion to support value addition and raise the manufacturing sector’s share to gross domestic product to 15 per cent by 2022.
On healthcare, the state is looking at increasing the number of people with health cover from 16 million to 25 million.
The government plans is to have at least 500,000 affordable homes in all major cities by 2022.