Former Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) Secretary General Wilson Sossion blamed the financial crisis in universities on decisions made by Fred Matiangi when he was the Minister for Education.
Speaking to the media on Wednesday, January 25, the former KNUT boss stated that during his tenure, Matiang'i put in place policies that lowered the transition of students to university.
Sossion explained that the restriction meant that self-sponsored students who could not join public universities, went to other private institutions.
“Matiangi restricted the transition of form fours to university to 10 percent of the candidature.
“That brought an end to module two, which consisted of self-sponsored students who would pay the full amount of fees for their education,” Sossion stated.
Owing to the reduced number of self-sponsored students in government universities, Sossion stated that the move affected funding in the institutions leading to huge debts.
By the end of 2022, Kenya’s public universities had a cumulative debt of Ksh56 billion as most institutions struggle to remain afloat.
“The move to accommodate self-sponsored students funded the universities. That is how funds are generated all over the world,” Sossion stated.
Addressing the issue of the privatization of universities, Sossion noted that the government had no plans of privatizing any public universities in the country.
“What we planned in the chatter is what is going to be implemented. There is nowhere in that document that talks about the privatization of universities,” Sossion explained.
He added that instead, the government had put in place plans to enhance university funding and improve the management of the universities.
The ministry of education under the leadership of Fred Matiangi in 2017 capped the university entry grade at C+ to enhance the quality of university education in the country.
On Tuesday, January 24, Trade Cabinet Secretary (CS) Moses Kuria announced that the government had put in place plans to begin the privatization of some of the country's public universities.
Kuria stated that privatization was the only solution could some of the institutions of higher learning that had been crippled by massive debts.
According to CS Machogu, the number of candidates with minimum university entry qualification of Grade C+ and above rose to 173,345 (19.03 per cent) in the year 2022 KCSE Examination compared to 145,776 (17.55 per cent) in 2021.
