Graduands at Mathenge Technical Training Institute. Parliament has
increased the budget for TVETs by Sh8 billion. PHOTO | JOSEPH KANYI |
NMG
Thousands of students enrolled in vocational and technical
training institutes are assured of government funding after Parliament
revised budget estimates for the year starting July to include Sh4
billion for their loans.
The National Assembly Budget
and Appropriation Committee (BAC) increased the budget for TVETs by Sh8
billion up from the Sh16 billion allocated for the 2018-19 financial
year.
The schools will get Sh4billionto buy equipment
and build classes as they struggle to match resources with rising
student population.
The allocation allays fears that
thousands of TVET students would drop out of school after the Treasury
said in January it could only provide Sh300 million for student loans
against the Sh3.6billion required to sustain them in the institutions.
The
ministry of Education had subsequently said that it would be unable to
keep the over 180, 000 students in school following the plans to cut the
budget in January.
“Increase to directorate of technical education, capitation for
TVET students to bridge the gap for capitation for increased TVET
learners (Sh1.5 billion plus Sh2.5 billion additional requests),” the
Budget committee said.
Full training at TVETs costs
Sh56,000 and the government will provide a capitation of Sh30,000 per
student to the schools and Sh40, 000 offered to the students through
Helb loans to meet their upkeep costs.
The increase
will ease financial constrains that have hit TVETs in the current year,
with low budgetary allocations and delayed release of the funds.
This
looks set to boost State plans to increase the labour market with
craftsmen like plumbers, mechanics and electricians to ease employment
in an economy with job seekers eyeing white collar job.
This
will be a departure from the trend set by President Uhuru Kenyatta’s
predecessor Mwai Kibaki of converting mid-tier colleges to universities —
which has led to an increase in the number of graduates with liberal
art degrees in a saturated job market.
Early this year,
technical education directors said only Sh762 million out of a budget
of Sh2.45 billion for capitation had been released since last August to
students, hurting the school operations.
The rise in budgetary allocation is in line with the increased TVET enrollment.
Data
by Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) shows that enrolment in
TVETs stood at 363, 884 students at December last year which was a 32
per cent rise from 275,139 in 2017.
The sharp rise in
TVET enrollment has coincided with a fall in number of students joining
university which stood at 513,182 last December from 522,059 in
December, 2017.
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