The Education Ministry on Wednesday May 10 announced plans to fund 42,144 learners who will be enrolled in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions in the 2023/24 academic year.
Principal Secretary, Dr Esther Muoria, stated that the ministry was expecting a higher figure of learners who sat the 2022 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) to join TVET institutions starting in September.
Out of the 145,325 students who were selected to join TVETS in the 2023/24 academic year, only 42,144 will benefit from the government sponsorship program.
The PS expressed confidence in the new funding model of learners in tertiary institutions, adding that it promoted fairness and equity and that the loans will be allocated basing on the level of need.
“The new model is more transparent and promotes accountability since all trainees placed by Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) to TVET institutions qualify to get government funding,” the PS stated.
The students will be funded by the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB), whereby learners would be expected to repay the loan upon completion of studies.
To ensure funding of only students who deserve the sponsorship, HELB Mean Testing Instrument (MTI) will be adopted. MTI has linkages at Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) and Registrar of Persons while local priests and chiefs will also be required to sign for students.
The PS explained that MTI will analyze trainees based on eight parameters namely parent’s background, gender weights, course type whether Sciences or humanities, previous school that the learner attended, family’s expenditure on education, family size and composition, marginalization and disabilities.
“Funding will be based on the cost of the course under study with an average of 58 per cent of the cost being Government scholarship,” she explained.
She encouraged parents to enroll their children in TVET institutions adding that all the 238 institutions across the country were well equipped to offer leaners the technical skills needed in the job market.
She emphasized that learners will join the 238 TVET institutions spread across the country, once the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) places them.
The statement by Education PS comes barely one weeks after President William Ruto on May 3, unveiled a new university funding model as a solution to the debt crisis bedevilling public universities.
In a press briefing from State House, Ruto explained that the new model will be student-centred and the funds will be channelled through scholarships and loans.
"Universities and TVETS will no longer receive block funding in the form of capitation based on a differentiated unit cost. Funding to students shall combine scholarships, loans and household contributions on a graduated scale," he stated.
He explained that students would be divided into three categories including the Vulnerable, the Less Vulnerable and the Able and will receive funding according to the categories.
