Education Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang at a past event. The World
Bank has observed that the country’s education system is failing to
produce graduates with the knowledge and skills crucial for Vision 2030.
FILE PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP
The World Bank has raised concerns on the quality of graduates being produced by universities and colleges in Kenya.
The
bank observes that the country’s education system is failing to produce
graduates with the knowledge and skills crucial for Vision 2030, in its
report dated September 2015.
The report is called “Kenya's Education Achievement and Challenges”.
“Several
deep-rooted issues continue to obstruct these desired outcomes,” said
the report that was handed over to Education Principal Secretary Belio
Kipsang last week.
The report comes in the wake of the
suspension of a number of courses by professional bodies, such as the
Council of Legal Education and Engineers Board.
Several
law and engineering courses have been suspended due to the failure by
universities to observe minimum requirements in offering them.
The
report cites the newly established or rebranded institutions at the
Ministry of Education that are not fully functional, thus limiting their
daily operations and effectiveness.
“There is the
problem of weak coordination amongst the sector institutions,
cultivating inefficiencies and duplication of efforts,” it adds.
It
further states that lack of data is another major problem hindering the
capacity for effective planning, monitoring, management and
accountability.
LOW FINANCING
The World Bank warns that low financing for development could derail Kenya’s education sector.
The sector could surpass its performance record if the reforms and challenges are effectively addressed, it adds.
The
report further notes that the coordination and management of public
education is fragmented, as well as riddled by low-quality programs.
It adds that the technical and vocational training system has few or no linkages or no relevance to the labour market.
“The
system is large, spanning 1,870 institutions spread across several
ministries, and generally features students who were unable to join
universities because of low academic scores,” said the report.
The
report notes that the sector has recorded growth in enrolment, a
prospect that could be hugely important for the country, but only if
students receive quality education and graduate on time with relevant
labour market skills.
The report observes that the cost
of self-sponsored higher education is prohibitive for most middle- and
low-income families, thus limiting the impact that university education
could have on economic growth.
It adds that enrolment
in critical science disciplines such as agriculture, engineering,
computer science, ICT, medicine and veterinary science is very low and
growing at a very slow pace as a majority of students enrol for
humanities, social sciences and arts.
NATIONWIDE DATA
“Besides
the number of students and institutions, no reliable nation-wide data
is collected and institutional information is sporadic at best. The
absence of useful data weakens decision making at all levels of the
sector,” it adds.
The report points out that families,
for example, are unable to make informed decisions about suitable or the
most competitive courses and their suppliers.
In
September, a large number of candidates who sat the Kenya Certificate of
Secondary Education examination in 2014 and qualified to join
middle-level colleges for diploma courses snubbed the institutions.
After
the final revision of courses, only 11,523 candidates had applied to
join the 50 middle-level colleges by September this year, according to
statistics from the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement
Service.
Middle-level colleges have a capacity of 41,550 students.
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