By Sunday evening, new Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba had managed to tamp down some of the heat by forestalling a planned strike by university students, whose main complaint is lack of clarity around the government's new funding model.
The CS announced formation of two broad-based committees, including student leaders, to review the status of implementation of the controversial model and make recommendations.
“The specific terms of reference, which will be published within this week after due input from the student leadership, will assess the efficiency of the appeals mechanism in achieving correct student categorisation and analyse the cost of the programmes in the universities," Ogamba said.
He asked the students to call off their strike “to allow room for open consultative process.”
Student organisations at the University of Nairobi, Moi, Kibabii, Technical University of Kenya, JKUAT, MKU and Dedan Kimathi, among others, had announced a strike beginning Monday, vowing to paralyse the higher learning institutions.
Ogamba said forming committees would integrate the voices of students into the formulation of key policies.
“One of the salient outcomes of the various forums has been the call to integrate students even more in the decision-making process," he said.
“This call has been at the heart of recent students' concerns, culminating in the announcement of demonstrations planned for September, 9 2024."
Shortly after the CS’s statement, university student leaders called off the planned strike.
"We believe, street demonstration is not the best route now, unless we have no other options left. Comrades, we see light at the end of the tunnel," the leaders said at a press conference.
They said they would give dialogue a chance, claiming that goons had been mobilised to infiltrate the planned protests.
"We call off tomorrow's activity and return to the discussion table on this matter. Let us stay safe, and calm as we pursue this matter for an amicable solution and a resounding win for all comrades.
"We urge that this goodwill is expedited, so that short-term remedies can be considered while a commitment is put in place for the long-term solution to this problem," they said in a joint statement.
"As leaders, we support the new approach but call on the government to facilitate the development of strict timelines and TOR for the committees' workings."
The students were joining their lecturers, who had said their grievances were not addressed by the government.
University Academic Staff Union secretary general Constantine Wasonga said their complaints included delayed salaries, state failure to release capitation to universities under the new funding model, and mismanagement of the institutions by some vice chancellors.
“The other day, the President said in an interview that he had injected an additional Sh40 billion into the education sector. Why are we not feeling the impact of Sh40 billion? Why do we have delayed salaries every year? Or somebody has mismanaged the Sh40 billion?” Wasonga said last month while giving notice of the dons’ strike.
The tipping point for the lecturers, Wasonga said, was the decision by the Technical University of Kenya to cap salary payment to its dons at 65 per cent due to lack of funds.
Uasu painted a grim picture of the state of higher education in the country, complaining that the sector was in incompetent hands.
“They came up with a funding model that we don’t know where it emanated from. Which Kenyan proposed to the Presidential Working Party this funding model? If my mind serves me right, when the working party tabled their first recommendation to the President, they recommended that DUC be increased or be paid at 80 per cent. A month later, they came up with an archaic funding model that everybody does not understand,” Wasonga said.
The previous Differentiated Unit Cost model allocated funds directly to universities, a block amount that was shared among the enrolled students and led to a lower grant amount per student. DUC has been replaced by the Student-Centred Funding Model.
“If you can remember, last academic year, students were told to report to campus without paying a single cent. Where did you expect universities to get money for operation if you tell students to report without money? Then when you release the money for the new funding model, you release it in bits. How do you expect universities to run?” Wesonga said.
“And now, the government has been consistently reducing capitation for continuing students while failing to release money for the new cohort under the new funding model. Where will the universities get the money to bridge what you have reduced for the continuing students? And when you go to the Ministry of Education, they are also helpless. Why are people earning money and they not working?”
At the same time, the union for non-teaching university staff issued a strike notice on August 25, complaining “over the failure of the IPUCCF/FKE group to negotiate, conclude, register and implement 2021-2025 CBA cycle, coupled with wage discrimination against union-represented staff.”
The Kenya Union of Domestic, Hotels, Education Institutions and Hospital Workers said its constituent unions had exhausted all avenues of voluntary negotiation with their employers.
Secondary school teachers went on strike for a week but the government resolved the dispute.
But a section of the teachers, including Junior Secondary school tutors, complained that Kuppet top brass short-changed them by agreeing to a deal with the government that did not address their concerns.
The re-emergence of tragic school fires has kept the spotlight on the Education ministry, with experts questioning the competence of its quality assurance department.
Education activist Muthoni Ouko told the Star that the department had failed, following the Thursday night fire at Hillside Endarasha Academy in Nyeri that claimed the lives of 21 pupils.
The tragedy occurred as at least seven public secondary schools in Machakos county were closed indefinitely after fires triggered student unrest.
Mumbuni Boys Secondary School was closed on Saturday after a fire broke out and razed part of the school.
Other schools affected in Machakos include Muthetheni Girls, Masii Girls, Machakos School, Nyayo Girls, Masinga Boys and Mtituni SA Secondary.
Dormitories were razed in Lukenya Girls Centre of Excellence, Nyayo Girls and Masii Girls secondary schools.
At least nine schools in neighbouring Makueni county have also been closed indefinitely.
