Crisis when Treasury reduces funding for new students at Helb.
Following the government’s reduction of the Helb budget, a record 83% of 2023 KCSE students would not receive government financing.
Additionally, continuing students under the previous funding scheme would not receive the vital support due to the budget cuts.
The National Assembly’s Education Committee report on the review of the 2024–25 budget forecasts contains the startling disclosures.
Julius Melly, a Tinderet MP, serves as the committee’s chairman.
Beatrice Inyangala, Principal Secretary of the State Department of Higher Education and Research, pleaded with the committee to step in and prevent a catastrophic situation for the industry.
Helb requires Sh13.8 billion to pay for the 122,634 pupils who took the KCSE last year, but only Sh2.4 billion was available in the budget.
The state department claims that the Sh2.4 billion will only cover 21,512 students’ tuition and housing.
According to Inyangala, “a total of 101,122 university students (83%) will therefore not be funded through tuition and upkeep loans.”
Helb asked for Sh31.89 billion in tuition and maintenance loans for both applicants from the previous year and ongoing education.
“The estimated projections for the financial year 2024–2025 show that Helb has a finance shortfall of Sh11.4 billion. According to the research, Helb can only afford to fund 17.2% of new students and all continuing students under the new model with the money at hand.
According to the PS, some students who are continuing under the previous model won’t receive money because of the decreasing amount.
Treasury gave Sh34.1 billion to the 369,029 students who were accepted using the previous funding scheme in the fiscal year 2023–2024.
The government has allocated a meager Sh17.85 billion for the upcoming fiscal year, which is a reduction from the previous year.
Students in their third through sixth year are most affected.
If the budget estimates presented by Treasury are approved by Parliament, funding for continuing education at four universities will be cut.
Nairobi, Eldoret, Kabianga, and Moi are the universities.
According to Inyangala, there are two serious risks. Firstly, it goes against the idea of treating students and universities equally.
“Secondly, students who do not receive funding may leave their respective universities.”
She cautioned that most colleges might not fulfill their mission if these issues are not resolved.
“To fulfill its mission, the higher education subsector mostly depends on human resources. Universities won’t be able to pay their employees as stated if there is a large cut to the budgetary allocation, according to Inyangala.
“The stability of universities is at risk due to the high likelihood of strikes by students and staff.”
Treasury nevertheless allotted Sh22 billion to university scholarships under the new funding model in spite of the reduction, in order to support both newly admitted students who are anticipated to enroll in various universities later in September of this year and those who will be continuing their studies into their second year.
A record Sh76 billion in outstanding bills have been accrued by all 36 public colleges, according to the documents submitted to the committee led by Melly.
This is from August 30, the previous year.
36 public colleges have encountered financial challenges over the years, which have resulted in enormous outstanding liabilities. The statement states that as of August 30 of last year, colleges had Kshs. 76,048 billion in outstanding bills.
As a result, there was a financial crisis, and 23 out of 40 universities were deemed technically insolvent.
Crisis when Treasury reduces funding for new students at Helb.
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