Sh2bn loans out in time to avert strike

Sh1.8 billion was Thursday released to students who have resumed studies at various universities.

The decision appeared calculated to avert a strike called by students today, had the loans not been released.

Higher Education Loans Board (Helb) chief executive officer Charles Ringera said the students would get the money from Friday.

Mr Ringera also announced that the board had forwarded a list of successful loan applicants to various universities to facilitate registration.

“Students depending on the Helb funding should not be worried as the board is working closely with the universities to ensure they are not inconvenienced,” said the chief executive in a statement.
Mr Ringera stated that Helb would continue to honour its commitments to students.

Helb, however, has announced that it will delay the release of funds for newly enrolled university students until November this year.

Some 56,938 government-sponsored first-year students have started reporting to public universities, and as such the delay could affect them in terms of tuition, accommodation and living expenses.
Student leaders last week raised concern over the delay and warned that they would go on strike if they did not receive the funds by Friday.

SH7BN SHORT

Treasury Secretary Henry Rotich allocated Helb Sh4 billion in this year’s budget. The agency recovered Sh3.3 billion last year, ending up Sh7 billion short of the Sh14.3 billion it says it needs to meet total demand.

This year’s admission to public universities under the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) saw a 7.4 per cent growth in enrolment from the 53,010 students offered places last year.

Helb plans to give loans to more than 60,000 freshmen and about 15,000 students admitted to technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions.

At the same time, the Parliamentary Committee on Education, Science and Technology is working on a formula for allocating funds to public universities across the country to ensure equality.

Sub-committee on university education chairman Wilbur Otichilo told the Nation that the current system was encouraging inequality and should be abolished.

“We visited several universities and discovered a lot of inequality. Some universities are being allocated a lot of money while others are getting very little despite having almost the same number of students,” said Dr Otichilo.

He said that several universities had stalled projects — some for more than 15 years — due to lack of funds.

“We have visited Maseno, Kisii and Egerton universities and we will continue to visit more so that they can share with us their experience to enable us come up with an acceptable formula of sharing resources,” said Dr Otichilo.