Lack of funds at Helb causes worry in Kenyan varsities

By Athman Amran

Scores of university students face uncertainty following Government failure to allocate adequate funds to the Higher Education Loans Board (Helb).
Higher Education Permanent Secretary Prof Crispus Kiamba said the ministry had requested Sh1.5 billion from the Treasury but was only given Sh500 million, which he said, is not enough to cater for the current double intake in public universities.

Public universities are set to absorb 32,671 students who sat their Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations in 2010.
The ministry also received Sh156 million for bursaries, which Prof Kiamba said was also inadequate.
“There is 156 million shillings for bursaries in colleges. We hope that within the next week, we will get more than 156 million shillings,” Kiamba told the Departmental Committee on Education, Research and Technology which sat at Parliament Buildings in Nairobi on Tuesday.
The committee, chaired by David Koech had expressed concern that some students may be expelled from universities due to lack of adequate funds by Helb to provide education loans to the students.

Higher Education Minister Margaret Kamar indicated that by January next year, a total of 26,000 out of the 32,671 students will have been absorbed in various public universities.
Most of the universities and university constituent colleges plan to clear an admissions backlog and normalise their intake by September 2013,when they will admit the 2012 KCSE cohort, the minister said.

The universities have to beat that deadline because the number of students seeking university education will have doubled from the current 97,134 to 150,000 in 2015.
But the ministry admitted that the challenge lies in extending loans to students.
“The challenge is in lending for the students.  We will need one billion shillings in the supplementary budget,” Helb CEO Benjamin Cheboi said.
Cheboi said that by next week Helb would know which students would be granted loans.

Usually successful

Out of the admissions by the Joint Admissions Board (JAB), 75 per cent of students apply for the Helb loan and bursary and 98 percent of these applications are usually successful.
Helb in its sector plan for this financial year has indicated that it will support 82,000 students both under the regular and self-sponsored programmes, including continuing students and those who sat KCSE examinations in 2009.
But due the lack of funds, most students may miss out if the Government does not allocate additional funds to Helb. The committee also expressed concern that the double intake could fatigue lecturers.

Koech pointed out that some universities also would admit more students while there is insufficient infrastructure to accommodate them. Koech pointed out that there was fear that the quality of education might be compromised.
In its report to the committee, the ministry said the universities’ worries include: compensation for extra teaching, industrial attachment and teaching practice, teaching materials and consumables, extra computers and overhead costs.