Diploma teacher colleges lower enrolment grade
St Mary's Boys Secondary School, Nyeri County, students rehearse for the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examination on November 3, 2017. Most students did not perform well in the exam. PHOTO | NICHOLAS KOMU | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- Prof Kere said students who have done two-year or three-year diplomas should now be given credit for work covered in the programmes.
- The credit transfer programme was put on hold last year after it emerged that universities were abusing it by enrolling unqualified students.
Diploma teachers colleges will enrol students with a minimum of grade C.
Kenya National Qualifications Framework Authority chairman Bonventure Kere said the decision was made due to the decline in the number of students getting the required scores to join the institutions.
Previously, students joining diploma colleges were required to have a minimum score of C+, but last year the number of students who attained C+ and above in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examination were 70,073.
Meanwhile, the transfer of credits to universities by diploma holders awaits approval.
CREDIT
This was a major relief to diploma holders after the agency announced that they will be allowed to start their university studies in second or third year.
Prof Kere said students who have done two-year or three-year diplomas should now be given credit for work covered in the programmes as long as it is the same discipline that they are progressing into.
Prof Kere said the guidelines have already been captured in the policy that has been developed by the authority and which is awaiting gazettement by Education Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed.
“It will be unfair for a student who has been in school for two or three years to start as a first year,” Prof Kere said, adding that the decision had been arrived at in consultation with other stakeholders, including the Commission for University Education, which regulates higher education.
The credit transfer programme was put on hold last year after it emerged that universities were abusing it by enrolling unqualified students.
AUDIT
The CUE audit report released in February last year revealed that only eight out of 31 public universities had complied with the regulatory requirements on credit transfer.
“Most universities did not have in place policies to guide credit accumulation and transfer system but they continued admitting students on credit transfer.
"In most universities, the credit transfer was left to the relevant departments to apply their own discretion when granting transfers to students,” the report added.
The audit said some universities were offering bridging and pre-university courses on the basis of which they admitted students into degree programmes.
BRIDGING
Last week, National Assembly’s Education Committee chaired by Mr Julius Melly put to task CUE over the emerging trend where students with D+ and above were doing bridging courses and joining universities for undergraduate programmes.
“We have cases where students who failed have improvised a clear way of joining degree programmes. We must end this,” vice-chairman of the committee Amos Kimunya said.
