Students protest plans to cut the funding for Helb by Sh3.7 billion.
Students at universities and colleges have objected to plans to cut the Higher Education Loans Board by Sh3.7 billion, claiming that this will prevent thousands of financially disadvantaged students from pursuing higher education.
The funding that Helb will get in the 2024–2025 fiscal year will be reduced by Sh3.7 billion, according to a proposal by the National Treasury.
The MPs have been presented with the idea and are awaiting their approval.
The sum represents a 10% reduction from the prior allotment. The Treasury desires to give Helb Sh33.3 billion.
Instead of the prior range of Sh35,000 to Sh60,000, students would now earn a revised range of Sh37,000 to Sh47,000 under the new model.
Journalists were informed by student leaders at several campuses around the nation that thousands of impoverished students will not be able to pursue higher education due to the new model of university funding.
The students, led by President Naomi Chebet of Kenya Methodist University, stated that because of the challenging economic conditions, parents are finding it difficult to support their children’s college or university education.
According to Chebet, hundreds of young Kenyans’ ambitions and careers would be destroyed if the fund were to be reduced. He noted that during the past few years, the number of needy students who only depend on Helb for their higher education has increased dramatically.
“Increasing the funding is necessary if anything is to be done to Helb, as the number of students has increased by approximately 200,000 over the last five years,” she stated.
“The new education funding model has grown expensive,” continued Chebet, “and many students from low-income families rely on Helb to continue with their studies.”
Her Kenyatta University counterpart, Ochieng Ododa, expressed similar views, calling the idea ill-timed and pointing out that it goes against the government’s plan to make higher education more accessible to all Kenyans.
Because Helb makes sure that everyone has access to higher education, including those at the bottom of the pyramid, Ochieng said the organization is essential to closing the wealth divide.
Thousands of Kenyan kids, he claimed, cannot afford to attend college.
Reducing Helb, according to Evans Muchanga of Chuka University, will result in the majority of the loan recipients failing to finish their education.
He declared, “Helb is our comrades’ salary; without it, we cannot survive.”
The students pleaded with the MPs not to adopt it and requested that the National Treasury put the ideas on hold. Rather, they demanded that the Helb budget be increased in order to assist more worthy students nationwide.
The impoverished in Kenya will never be able to pursue higher education, according to Chebet, “so we are calling on the legislators and other stakeholders, including the Ministry of Education, to reject the proposal.”
The Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Union (KMPDU) and the State were at odds over medical interns, with the students wading into the dispute and claiming that the interns are often not students but rather recent graduates of their field.
Chebet, a medical science student, stated that if the government is unable to pay medical students as interns, then it should license all medical students upon graduation. They campaigned for fair compensation for all interns in medicine.
“Internships are simply required employment in order to obtain your license. Thus, upon graduation, the government might simply grant licenses to interns if it lacks the funds to post them, the speaker explained.
Students protest plans to cut the funding for Helb by Sh3.7 billion.
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