Some university courses hyped, says DP Ruto

Deputy President William Ruto has yet again dismissed some courses offered by universities as of little use to the economy, as he championed for technical and vocational courses.
The DP brushed off courses such as history, geography, sociology and anthropology, saying they should not be given preference by students. He instead advocated technical courses offered by technical and vocational education training (TVET) colleges.

ELECTRICITY
He said the government is committing resources to TVETs since they carry the potential of spurring development in the country.
“I was a very good student of history myself, but while it is okay for historians to tell us how Vasco Da Gama came, went somewhere and discovered this, he died. We need the gentleman or the lady who will fix our sewerage system or electricity when something is wrong,” he said while speaking at Kenya Technical Trainers College in Nairobi during the launch of a TVET Competency Based Educational and Training Framework.

ANTHROPOLOGY
He added: “There are over 1,000 students learning sociology and anthropology, but if you look at the requirements of the industry, how many anthropologists or sociologists do we need? We end up with graduates many of whom cannot be placed in a proper job environment.”
He discouraged parents from pressuring their children to join university programmes. “People often say we all cannot be doctors or lawyers and that is true. That is why we should be masons, electricians and machine technologists,” he said.