Parliamentary Budget Office pokes holes in wanting education system

The Parliamentary Budget Office has returned a stinging verdict on the country's education system. It says most graduates are half-baked, especially those heading for the blue-collar job market.

The team noted that while universities were churning out graduates, most of them had their eye on white-collar jobs.

The concern for the Budget Office is that most of the technical colleges have been turned into universities, a policy move that created gaps in the provision of graduates with technical and entrepreneurial skills.

"Industries that could have been supported by these industrial and technological experts are stagnant, making the country depend on importation," the Budget team noted.

The House technocrats said there was a 'weak link' between the graduates' skills and what the market wants, adding that this was rendering most of them jobless.

They noted in their latest report that the Government appears to have targeted 'quantity rather than quality'. While so much money has been pumped into building more schools, training more teachers and employing them and pushing up the number of pupils who enroll, the curriculum was wanting.

"The education curriculum does not address the demands of the labour market thereby creating a skill gap in the economy," noted the advisory that is assessing the implementation of the Sh1.8 trillion budget.

The Budget Office warned that unless the curriculum is revised, then Kenya should kiss goodbye the dream of becoming a middle-income economy come 2030.

The mandarins also warned that the free maternity care that the Jubilee administration introduced a year ago should not be taken as a licence for parents to sire more children.

"The country must work hard to control the high population growth rate which if left unchecked, will continue to put a strain on health services and education provision," the Budget Office said.

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