Parents are being misled by the varsity price system, lawmakers inform the ministry.
Over 140,000 students are scheduled to start university in September, and several members of parliament have expressed concerns about the fees being levied to them.
The National Assembly Education Committee claims that the fee structures at universities are unclear since they simply provide the overall cost without specifying the portion that parents and the government are expected to pay.
The senators contended that parents are being misled by the admission letters sent out under the new university finance arrangement.
The legislators now want the breakdown to be reflected in the letters.
“Some parents have looked at the admission letters and they find the quoted fees to be above their reach thus opting for their children to go for police recruitment or seek to join the military,” Clive Gisairo, MP for Kitutu Masaba
The government-sponsored students will receive financial support according to their need under the plan, which went into effect in September.
faulty formula for funding
Students are ranked from most needy to least needy into five bands based on their financial ability.
MPs, however, have criticized the technique used to categorize the children, calling it fragile and inaccurate.
The Ministry of Education claims that the Means Testing Instrument (MTI), a scientific tool, is used by the government to evaluate a student’s capacity to pay fees.
The approach considers a number of factors, including the parents’ employment and income, medical expenses, the primary and secondary schools they attended, the poverty index, and the ownership of a motor car.
However, Members of Parliament objected, stating that the limitations do not adequately reflect a student’s background.
“One of the universities we visited provided us with further information and demonstrated that the Means Testing Instrument is not impenetrable,” stated Kabondo Kasipul MP Eve Obara.
Legislator Nabii Nabwera of Lugari said that several pupils’ placements were predicated on false background information.
“Several of those students, whose placement in different bands reflects their ability to pay higher fees, could not even afford the fees they had to pay in secondary school; they owed over 200,000 shillings in unpaid debt from their previous schools,” the speaker stated.
Resolving flaws
9,726 students who were recognized for government financing in the previous year’s placement complained and requested a reassessment of their status, according to data presented to the committee.
Of them, 4,087 had their appeals accepted, while 5,639 had them denied.
Marakwet West MP Timothy Kipchumba questioned whether the model was hurried, pointing out that some students are being counseled to select courses that their parents can afford rather than ones for which they are qualified.
The ministry was pressed by the lawmakers to describe the shortcomings of the model and to explore the possibility of going back to the earlier Differentiated Unit Cost (DUC) method.
Beatric Inyangala, principal secretary for higher education, supported the approach notwithstanding the fact that obstacles would be removed.
“We admit that this process has certain holes in it. Some result from inadequate information being obtained early on, the speaker stated.
“We are evaluating the first year of execution and considering the input to guide future developments.”
Julius Melly, the chairman of the committee, requested a response from the ministry detailing their plan to rectify the problems within a fortnight.
Parents are being misled by the varsity price system, lawmakers inform the ministry.
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