Government Announces Full Sponsorship for 42144 TVET Students 2023
Government Announces Full Sponsorship for 42144 TVET Students 2023. The Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions will enroll 42,144 students in the 2023–2024 academic year, the Education Ministry declared on May 10th.
The government anticipated that more students who took the 2022 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) would enroll in TVET colleges starting in September, according to Dr. Esther Muoria, the ministry’s principal secretary.
The government funding program would only benefit 42,144 of the 145,325 applicants accepted to enroll at TVETS for the 2023–2024 academic year.
The PS expressed confidence in the new system for paying postsecondary students, stressing that it promoted equity and fairness and that loans would be disbursed in accordance with the level of need.
The PS claimed that the new strategy is more open and accountable because all trainees placed by Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) in TVET institutions are qualified to receive government funding.
The students will get money from the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB), with the understanding that they will be responsible for repaying the loan once their studies are finished.
To make sure that only deserving students receive funding, the HELB Mean Testing Instrument (MTI) will be employed. MTI has links with the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) and the Registrar of Persons, and students will also need the signatures of local priests and chiefs.
The PS states that MTI will assess trainees in accordance with eight criteria, including the learner’s prior educational experience, parent’s background, gender weights, course type (sciences or humanities), prior school attended, family educational expenditures, family size and composition, marginalization, and disabilities.
She said that funding would depend on how much the course would cost, with government scholarships typically covering 58% of the expense.
She urged parents to enroll their children in TVET courses, pointing out that all 238 of the country’s educational institutions have the tools necessary to provide them with the technical training needed by the job market.
She emphasized that students would enroll in the 238 TVET colleges spread across the country after being placed by the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS).
The Education PS statement was released just one week after President William Ruto, on May 3, revealed a new strategy for funding colleges to address the debt issue plaguing public universities.
Ruto highlighted that the new model will be student-centered and the funding will be distributed through loans and scholarships in a news briefing from State House.
“Block funding for universities and TVETS will no longer be given in the form of capitation based on differentiating unit costs. Scholarships, loans, and household payments will all be merged in a graded manner to fund students, he added.
He said that the three groups of students—the Vulnerable, the Less Vulnerable, and the Able—would be divided, and that resources would be distributed in accordance with the groups.