‘Don’t panic, Govt will support you’- Wetang’ula tells private universities amid reforms

The government has assured private universities in the country of support as the government embarks on an ambitious journey to overhaul the education system in the country.

National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetang’ula allayed fears that private institutions will be affected by the education reforms, that were recommended by the Presidential Working Party on Education Reform (PWPER), saying that the government will support both public and private universities equally.

Education system reforms task force

The task force led by Prof Raphael Munavu presented the report on education system reforms to President William Ruto on Tuesday.

The report has a raft of recommendations that aims at reforming the education system from pre-primary to tertiary levels.

The report recommends the introduction of a programme modelled on the National Youth Service pre-university, a programme that collapsed in the 1980s.

The programme will introduce a mandatory three-month community service programme for senior school graduates and a further nine-month community service upon completion of tertiary education. This aims at embedding community-based learning.

Universities, according to the report, will also be required to develop one-year retraining programmes for teachers in preparation for competency-based teacher education programmes.

Wetang’ula spoke at Mt Kenya University in Thika on Friday during the University’s 23rd graduation ceremony where 6108 graduands were conferred with PHDs, Masters, Degrees, Diplomas and Certificates.

“The government will continue supporting education both in the private and public universities and ensure that quality is enhanced and maintained to make sure that students churned out meet the expectations and the desires of our republic,” the speaker said.

Wetang’ula on private University

Wetang’ula noted that private universities play a pivotal role in furthering education in the country adding that the Government will assist the institutions to sail through some of the challenges they face including lack of adequate resources.

“We are not oblivious to the challenges that education in the country faces. This is why the government is ready to ensure there are adequate resources available for education, research, science, innovation and technology including but not limited to training good quality teachers who will help our institutions,” he said.

Parliamentary Education Committee Chairman Julius Melly said that the reforms and especially on university education are meant to improve them to international standards.

“I want to tell the investors and moreso the private universities that there’s no cause for alarm. The kind of reforms that are going on in the republic are to enhance the role of private universities and also the role of National public universities, it is not to harm anyone and I want to tell students and graduands from private universities that all is well and we want to have a one harmonious university education that meets international standards,” he said.

MKU Founder and Chairman Prof Simon Gicharu said that they will embrace the reforms noting that the overhaul touches on increased productivity in research and innovation, improvement in university international rankings, exemption of university scholarly research and innovation levies, the institutionalization of university and industry linkages and funding for higher education.

“From where we sit, we see these university reforms as a challenge for universities to do what they are supposed to do both in academics and community outreach. The board will support the university management to fully embrace and implement these reforms,” Gicharu said.

Gicharu at the same time announced a waiver of school fees for over 4000 students amounting to sh 80 million. He noted that the beneficiaries are those who were allowed to learn during the Covid-19 pandemic, graduated and have never collected their certificates.

“The issue of uncollected certificates was worsened by the covid-19 pandemic. On behalf of the board of directors, I would like to announce a waiver of all these fines. We have written off the sh 80 million, and all the past students can now come and now come and collect their certificates without having to pay a cent,” Gicharu said.

Thika MP Alice Ng’ang’a urged graduates to spread their wings and tap job opportunities abroad noting that the country has limited job opportunities.