New hope for Form Four leavers

All Form Four leavers who qualify for university education will have a chance to pursue courses of their choice at either public or private universities through government funding, a new education policy proposes.

To achieve this, a new body will be established to admit students joining public and private universities.

Under this new proposal, funding will be based on the unit-cost of offering a course. So students pursuing courses like engineering and medicine will get higher amounts compared to those taking arts.

Currently, the bulk of students who get government loans and scholarship are in public universities. Only a small percentage of students in private universities get the loans and bursaries, which is often insufficient as it is pegged on the fees charged by public universities.

Since they charge high fees, private universities mainly attract students from rich families. Even then admission to public universities is based on available slots rather than students’ career choices.

These proposals are contained in the Policy Framework For Education and Training that was presented yesterday for discussion at a meeting of MPs and education stakeholders at the Great Rift Valley Lodge in Naivasha.

“Government scholarships to be awarded based on a combination of national priority areas, student performance, student choice of programme and university, and available slots in each programme at both public and private universities,” says the policy.

Five Bills prepared

Five Bills, which are intended to give force to the new policy, have been prepared and were also discussed at the meeting. They include the Basic Education Bill; Higher Education Bill; Technical and Vocational Training Bill; Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development Bill and Kenya National Examinations Council Bill.

The new policy proposes to establish University Joint Admissions Board to take over the current role of the Joint Admissions Board (JAB), which is an informal structure that only selects students for public universities.

In the current arrangement, private universities admit students on their own, raising questions about admission standards. Some universities admit students through what is called bridging qualifications, which are questionable.

The new policy, which was presented by Education permanent secretary George Godia, also proposes that all secondary schools should have a minimum of three streams to ensure optimum use of existing schools.

Teacher trainees will be required to go for a one-year internship before being employed.

The policy also proposes to create a government fund to support private investors in education.

Counties will be tasked with the responsibility of providing pre-primary education, adult education and youth polytechnics, says the policy.

Education minister Mutula Kilonzo asked for speedy discussion and ratification of the Bills.