CS says 75,000 students have paid fees under new varsity funding model

Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba (centre) addresses the press at Lake Naivasha Resort after opening the 54th International Conference of the Association of Technical Universities and Polytechnics in Africa. [File, Standard]

Some 124,364 students out of 138,538 students placed to universities for the 2024/25 academic year have so far reported.

Education Cabinet Secretary, Julius Ogamba Wednesday said that 75,000 students have paid their household contribution out of those who have reported, which translates to about 60 per cent.

The CS 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.

Speaking at the National Assembly’s plenary session, the CS explained the workability of the funding model saying the Means Testing Instrument used for categorisation of students was designed to utilise data provided to determine their need, which was then validated through other government agencies and systems.

“Since the roll out 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.

Ogamba found himself on the receiving end over the funding model, which the MPs termed as discriminatory and a failure and demanded that they Ministry goes back to the old system, Differentiated Unit Cost (DUC).

This, they said, will give the Ministry adequate time to rectify issues raised under the student centred model, even as they insisted that the MTI is also flawed since it placed learners in wrong bands.

The ministry was also required to provide the approximate cost of an individual from the basic education to the tertiary level.

Ogamba said that this depends on a number of variables such as whether the learner has special needs, the type of school attended - boarding or day, the gender and the type of tertiary received – whether university or TVET.

He said the current rate for capitation include Sh1,420 for primary, Sh15,042 for junior school and  Sh22,244 per learner per year, respectively.

The presidential working party on education reforms recommended that the rates should be revised to reflect the actual cost of education. Ogamba said the working party recommended that this amount be enhanced for all levels of learning to total Sh18,828 per year in a regular pre-primary school and Sh19,636 for those in special needs schools. In primary, the cost was enhanced to Sh2,238 for tuition per year and another Sh5,384 for lunch and the total cost per learner in a regular day primary school for six years should stand at Sh45,73.

In boarding schools, the amount increases because of the cost of dinner, at Sh5,594 which amounts to Sh79,296 per year while for special needs learners, this figure increases to Sh101,040 for the entire primary school period.

For day junior school, the annual cost of tuition at a regular school is estimated at Sh15,044 while lunch is estimated at Sh5,384 which totals Sh61,281 for three years