Relief for varsity students after CS Migos assures them to sit semester exams

University students sitting in a lecture hall. [Getty Images]

All university students will sit continuous assessment tests and the semester examinations even if they have not cleared fees, Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Migos has said.

Migos said the most vulnerable in society will not be disadvantaged, noting that all varsity students, even those with fees arrears, will sit CATS and exams this semester.

It emerged that only 75,000 students have cleared household contributions (fees), which translates to about 60 per cent.

The directive is a major reprieve to some 64,000 students who were at risk of missing the university end-of-semester papers.

Migos said out of 138,538 students placed in universities for the 2024/25 academic year, only 124,364 students have so reported to universities.

He said that the Ministry implemented the directive that Parliament issued last month, requesting vice-chancellors of all universities to admit all students without paying their household contribution as issues surrounding the funding model were sorted out.

He was speaking on Tuesday when he appeared before the Education Committee of the National Assembly chaired by Tinderet MP Julius Melly.

“The Ministry has directed universities to allow all learners to do their exams as the government review the banding of the students,” Migos said.

University of Nairobi Students Council President Rocha Madzao said that although the government had set a committee to review the banding, it is a ploy to divert the attention of students' demands.

"The committee is going to take two months and by then students will be deep in their semester examinations. This will lock the majority out from sitting the papers," he said.

He said, for many, the dream of higher education is slipping away, not due to a lack of ambition but because of a controversial new funding model.

 “This is a delaying tactic to lure our minds to accept their failed method. We will protest this,” he said.

The CS told MPs that the government had received 11,132 appeals from students with the window still open until December 2024.

“The appeals are processed on a rolling basis. The outcome of the appeals will be communicated to the specific students. Some 16,807 students have not applied for funding,” he said.

This is in addition to 9,000 student appeals received last year out of which 5,000 were successful.

University Fund Chief Executive Officer Geoffrey Monari said, the learners still have a window till the end of the year to give the right information so that they are reevaluated and correctly placed.

 “Depending on when you submit your appeal, the maximum we can take to give results is three weeks,” he said.

He noted that the Means Testing Instrument (MTI) used for the categorization of students was designed to utilise data provided to determine their needs, which was then validated through other government agencies and systems.

“Since the rollout of the student-centred funding model, there have been improvements carried out to ensure it accurately establishes the student level of need and that no needy student has been disadvantaged,” the CS assured MPs.