NAIROBI, Sept 9 (NNN-KBC) — Kenya’s Ministry of Education is requesting the university students’ leadership to call off the demonstrations planned for Monday Sept 9 to reject the New Funding Model for Higher education.
Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Migos Ogamba urged the students to instead take advantage of a fresh review of the model to be done by two Working Committees and recommend areas of improving it.
The university students complained that the model had made higher learning a preserve for the rich.
University student leaders have expressed their dissatisfaction, calling on their fellow comrades to show up in numbers for a TISA TISA protest against the new funding model.
In a barrage of 21 letters from leaders of various university students associations, they demanded that the whole model be abolished if its Bands 4 and 5 cannot be withdrawn terming it discriminatory against the poor.
They further demanded efficiency in the Means Testing Instrument.
But in a bid to avoid disruption of learning, Education CS Julius Ogamba offered the students the opportunity to meaningfully participate and be involved through two short-term Working Groups to be formed to review the new funding model and recommend how it should be improved.
The Working Group’s specific Terms of Reference include:
Appraisal of the model’s implementation; Evaluate the Means Testing Instrument on students’ socio-economic realities; Assess the efficacy of funding reategorization appeals mechanism; Analyze the cost of univesities programmes, and Review student loans structure. — NNN-KBC
