The confusion in relation to the new funding model in Kenya’s public universities can be attributed to poor leadership and communication from the umbrella the Ministry of Education.
Being the umbrella that covers the Higher Education Fund, KUCCPS, universities and all tertiary institutions, the ministry should call to order all those concerned and have clarity in communication or messaging that assuages the fears of stakeholders.
What do I mean? Let us start with time management. KCSE 2022 results were out in January 2023. What made it so difficult in managing the choice and revision of courses under KUCCPS for all tertiary institutions so that by the end of April 2023 everyone knew where they had been placed? That would have meant that by the end of May 2023 the application for scholarship would have been complete.
In June 2023 communication on funding of every student would have been made to the institutions and the students and their parents. Based on that communication, every tertiary institution would have sent an admission letter to the students with an invoice of the expected cash to be paid in the first semester and second semester.
What the universities have done is a display of lack of discipline and pathetic management. It surprises one that it is from those institutions that we expect to get products of best management practices. You can lump all the tuition fees and tell the students that is the amount to be paid before admission where clearly, they know that is not the case.
However, let me give credit to some institutions like Chuka University that went its way to break down the fees into Vulnerable, Extremely Needy, Needy and Less Needy categories and what is the expected fees to be paid for each category in various courses.
The irony is this is a relatively young university when the so-called old universities that resisted from the 80s and 90s can take their time to do such a simple task. It is a reflection of copy-paste regurgitation of notes that goes on in these institutions.
The universities have deliberately or accidentally helped to spread fear about this change by the vague messaging of fees to be paid but I blame the Ministry of Education for not taking charge to have. Does it not surprise you that secondary schools have reasonable prudent management compared to these public universities.
There is no secondary school that includes the Sh22,000 capitation as part of the school fees to be paid. They will clearly put that as part of the total fees but make it clear it is from the government not the parents. Granted, we can say the universities don’t know what each learner has been allocated but why not wait until that is communicated from the relevant agency then communicate accordingly. What is the hurry to admit students when funding is at the core of learning?
It is upon the Ministry of Education to call out its institutions to work harmoniously. You can’t have a Higher Education Fund having an application for scholarship and loans while the universities have set a date for admission that clearly ignores that application. Yet this was not the case before.
There was order and proper management in the education ministry when we were in school in the 1990s. When HELB was established in 1995, the Ministry of Education was clear how it had arrived at funding in universities. It said on average, one student in a public university cost was Sh120,000. The government gave an automatic scholarship of Sh70,000.
The rest Sh50,000 was from the HELB loan of Sh42,000 and bursary of Sh8,000 for needy cases (mainly those who received all the Sh42,000 loan). The Sh42,000 was broken down to Sh16,000 for tuition, Sh7,000 for accommodation, Sh9,000 for library (text books and stationery) and Sh10,000 for catering. This money was divided into two for each semester, Sh4,000 sent directly as tuition to the universities and the rest released to the account of the student.
Of course, many students were allocated less money than this Sh42,000 maximum without a clear criterion. Someone like yours truly with both parents not working received an allocation of Sh20,000 yet many well-off comrades received higher allocation. It is such experience that fuels fear about the fairness in allocation of scholarships under the new funding model.
The release of that cash was synchronised with the university calendar such that the money was released before universities opened for the first or second semester. What am I bringing this up? It is to show that there was leadership from the Ministry of Education. There was planning and thinking through actions. There was very clear communication on every issue.
Tell what is the ministry’s position on the funding of accommodation, books and stationery and catering. Have the students suddenly started eating stones, living in the streets and reading and writing from their thighs? How is that cost catered for? How did the ministry decide it is only tuition to be funded when the same ministry in the 1990s knew there was catering, accommodation and library? The irony is some of these people making decisions or allowing decisions on such issues not to be made were beneficiaries, hence know funding is beyond tuition.
It is the same ministry that releases KCSE and tells us of underage candidates. Yet it supports and rationalises not giving the students under 18 loans. It says legally you can’t enter into a contract with a minor. It sounds reasonable until you pore into it.
Didn’t the same government through DCI warn students in schools (most of them minors) that they will be blacklisted for life for strikes they cause in schools? Did they stop to be minors to put that life criminal burden on their shoulders? Check the process of the loan application. It is more about the parents of the student than the student.
It demands for the parents’ identification documents. Why can’t these above 18 adults handle their issues without involving parents? You can’t purport to leave the under 18 out of the loans as minors but treat the adults with IDs as appendages of parents.
The same parents, if willing, should be asked to allow their documents to be used to apply for the loan on behalf of the minor that will be transferred to that minor when they are above 18 and get their IDs. In any case that student has identities like birth certificates, KCPE and KCSE index numbers and the much-praised Nemis.
The ministry should be clear that if such identities as Nemis are useless we ignore them and wait for IDs. My thoughts are the birth certificate and Nemis should be linked to the ID so the loan application should go on.
My plea to the Ministry of Education is to take control of what is going on in the institutions under it. Stop the universities from fixing admission dates and sending admission letters. Sort out the scholarship and loans. Even application is a nightmare as the system is down more than up.
It is also not clear when the application deadline is as the system tells you days remaining that puts the deadline on September 7, while some officials have told the media it is August 27, 2023. The ministry is not looking good in its communication management. Let each learner know what they have been allocated.
Let the parents know the allocation they appeal and find ways of financing the deficit. The universities can as well open in January next year. You can’t lounge from January 2023 when the KCSE result was released then suddenly within August you feign urgency! Urgency for what when you have been on gear one and hand brake on for six months?
Nairobi-based commentator of education and social issues
