Big Blow To University Students As Ruto Promises To Abolish HELB.

The government told Kenyans that the education sector would improve.

 

 

President William Ruto said his presidency has laid the foundation for a revolution in the education sector in the past four months.

 

 

 

Ruto has promised to abolish HELB and TVET fees and establish a national expertise and funding council to unite the two levels to provide a framework for credit transfer and support academic development.

 

 

 

The National Education Foundation will collect grants, scholarships and bursaries from private and public donors to cover non-tuition costs.

 

 

 

“To close the current higher education funding gap of up to 45 percent, the government will establish a National Faculty and Finance Council that will unite HELB, TVET and the University Finance Council.

 

 

 

 

This doubles the current Higher Education Loan Board funding from Sh11 billion to Sh22 billion and does not include Helb loan interest. ”

 

 

 

In his New Year speech at State House in Mombasa, Ruto said the government wants to inject more money into the industry to give it new life.

 

 

 

He said 30,000 additional teachers will be recruited for basic education, as well as 3,000 teachers for TVET institutions.

 

 

 

“Our goal is to provide government-run training, including continuous professional development for teachers,” he said.

 

 

 

Ruto also said the government intends to spend Sh15 billion to equip 70 TVET institutes to train students and prepare them for the labor market.

 

 

 

The Kenya Kwanzaa Union has pledged in its Education Charter to complete the construction of Vocational Training Centers in every ward and ensure that there are Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) Institutes in every constituency.

 

 

 

“During the first two years, we will establish and fully equip one Tvet institution in each of the remaining 52 constituencies,” says the charter.

 

 

 

“Also, we will recruit teachers to take care of our TVET institution because TVET has the best human capital to suit the subjects of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (branch) and engineering, because that is the future we are looking for,” he said.

 

 

 

Ruto said the President’s Labor Party proposal will inform the government to revive human capital and sharpen and overcome challenges in the education sector.

 

 

“We know that many universities are facing significant challenges and huge debts due to the length of the program. We will ensure that our universities have enough attention to provide quality education,” he said.

 

 

 

He also proposed to establish community universities and increase the number of technical universities in eight regions from the current three to eight.

 

 

 

Universities will be forced to focus on their comparative advantage in education.

 

For example, Mombasa universities should have courses focused on green economy and Turkana universities should have mining courses”.