Education Cabinet Secretary, Prof. George Magoha, on Thursday, stated that he had unearthed systemic rot deeply entrenched in Kenyan universities, going on to vow that he would eradicate it at all costs.
Speaking during a session with the Parliamentary Committee on Education, the CS disclosed that several universities were running an extortion racket of offering courses not approved by the Commission for University Education.
“I know for sure that there are universities who sit down decide to offer this course, they start teaching it without involving the Commission for University Education or regulator,” Magoha divulged.
The commission chair, Julius Melly, who was visibly perturbed by the report, asked the education CS his planned course of action to ensure that innocent students no longer lost money in pursuit of meaningless courses.
“It is criminal to teach somebody something and when he comes out he gets disqualified, we will clean this up,” Magoha pledged.
Countless graduates, over the years, have ended up missing out on jobs, simply because the courses they pursued could not be approved by the relevant professional bodies, Citizen Digital reported.
“Whereas the regulator has approved that a certain course should be done, a professional body disapproves, this that has left students stranded,” the commission's chair reiterated.
The alarming report came just a few days after Magoha dismissed vice-chancellors of public universities, who were opposed to the recent directive to merge their institutions in the wake of a financial crisis.
However, the education CS maintained that it was the quality of education coming out of the universities that mattered, and not the number of institutions.
“I was given instructions by President Kenyatta after my appointment that no more new universities. We must bring sanity in the university education sector,” he asserted.
