Day: May 21, 2023

At Least ten secondary schools in Laikipia and some parts of Nyeri County have participated in an inter schools quiz competition aimed at challenging their creativity and enhancing team cohesion among learners.

The interschools competition which was organized by British Army Training Unit Kenya (BATUK) in Nanyuki dubbed MasterMinds Interschools competition saw St. Jude Girls emerge the overall winner.

The best student walked away with a laptop and the participating students got certificates and stationeries.

Speaking to the media, BATUK Commander in charge of Laikipia training unit Colonel Duncan Mann said that they had spent over Sh50 million in holding annual quiz competitions and improving schools’ infrastructures in the region.

‘We are here to support education because community engagement is very important for us. This competition will encourage students to have passion for learning and become responsible citizens in the future,’ said Col Mann.

Helena Kangai, a teacher at St Jude girls secondary school in Nanyuki said that they had prepared enough which contributed to their win in the inter school competitions.

She said that the competition gave a chance to the students to interact with other learners from other schools.

Gwen Wangari, a student at St Jude girl thanked her teachers for the opportunity to participate in the competition and for helping her emerge the winner.

She noted that they did not win in last year’s quiz competition, but that didn’t stop them from trying for a second time.

Irene Wambui, a student from the same school, said she was lucky to get a laptop after participating in the competition.

She added that she engaged her teachers a lot ahead of the competition which played a major role in her win.

Among the schools that took part are Sweet waters secondary school, Likii mixed secondary school, Narumoro mixed, Thingithu secondary, Bishop Gatimu Ngandu secondary school, Kalalu girls and Nanyuki township secondary school.

Source: Kenya News Agency

State Department for Basic Education Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang has said that the new funding model for universities and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions was student-centered, predictable and will encourage the institutions to seek other revenue streams.

Dr Kipsang indicated that the funding model for higher education will see needy households get more support than those from well-off backgrounds.

The Principal Secretary said the new funding regime had been crafted to ‘cure’ the uniform and an inequitable capitation witnessed under the differentiated unit cost (DUC) model, where the rich and the poor student receive the same amount.

Unlike what has been the case, universities and TVETs will no longer receive block funding in the form of capitation based on the DUC whose sustainability has been a struggle following dipping in funding ratios from the government. Instead the government has resolved that university funding will be apportioned to individual students according to their level of need.

Addressing students and staff at Egerton University’s Njoro Main Campus after a tree planting exercise Dr Kipsang explained that the new funding framework seeks to offer students whose households are at the bottom of the pyramid equal opportunity in accessing university education and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET).

Under the new funding model, the government will fully fund the vulnerable and extremely needy students joining universities and TVETs this year.

The funding for these students will be through scholarships, loans and bursaries.

To facilitate the implementation of the new framework, Dr Belio disclosed that the State has increased funding for university education to Sh84.6 billion from Sh54 billion allocated in the financial year starting July as loans and grants.

This translates to an allocation increase per student from Sh152,000 to Sh208,000. The budgetary allocation for TVETs will in the coming financial year increase from Sh5.2 billion to Sh10 billion, translating to Sh67,000 per year per trainee.

On May 3rd President William Ruto announced the new funding model and clarified that it will not raise the fees for the students.

The announcement opens the doors for the process of admitting the 2022 KCSE candidates whose fate has been in limbo awaiting the resolution of the funding model.

‘Students will be categorized according to four levels of need; vulnerable, extremely needy, needy and less needy. All students shall be supported adequately to meet the cost of the programme they choose to pursue. No student will ever be left behind,’ Dr Ruto said.

About 92,350 students (29 per cent) who will join universities and TVET institutions this year have been identified as vulnerable and extremely needy and will receive full government support in terms of scholarships, loans and bursaries.

‘Students whose households are at the bottom of the pyramid shall enjoy equal opportunity in accessing university and TVET education. Their households shall not make any contribution towards the education of their children,’ the President said.

‘The new model of funding higher education, to be implemented effective this academic year 2023/2024, will commence with the new cohort of 173,127 students joining universities and 145,325 joining TVETs. All continuing government-sponsored students shall be supported in line with the previous existing funding model,’ Dr Ruto said.

Dr Ruto said that students who opt to study in private universities will qualify for Helb loans but will not be eligible for the scholarships.

The new funding framework according to Dr Kipsang will be based on four criteria, choice of the programme, household income band, affirmative performance and government priority areas.

Means Testing Instrument (MTI) will be applied to scientifically determine the need levels of students. The instrument has eight variables, which have been used over the years and have been strengthened and linked to other databases to boost reliability.

Dr Kipsang explained that the eight variables include parents’ background, gender, course type, marginalization, disability as well as family size and composition.

‘By combining these variables, it is envisaged that the State will be able to determine the needs of the various households and fund them appropriately. Based on MIT, students from rich backgrounds will get more loans than scholarships while the less able will get more scholarships than loans,’ added the Principal Secretary

Universities will be required to declare and publicize the actual cost of their programmes on the websites and share with Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) before every placement cycle.

Now, students from needy households joining universities will receive government scholarships (grants) of up to a maximum of 53 per cent and Helb loans of up to 40 per cent with the households paying the remaining seven per cent of the cost of a course.

The cheapest course is a Bachelor of Arts degree (Sh144,000). This means that the government will pay a maximum of Sh76,320 while students will get a Sh57,600 loan from Helb. The household will pay the remaining Sh10,080 per year.

For the most expensive programme, Bachelor of Dentistry at Sh720,000, the government will pay a maximum of Sh381,600, with the students getting a loan of Sh288,000 while the family pays the remaining Sh50,400 per year.

Students joining TVET institutions will receive government scholarships up to a maximum of 50 per cent and 30 per cent in loans while households will pay 20 per cent of the costs.

Source: Kenya News Agency

Information, Communication and the Digital Economy Cabinet Secretary Eliud Owalo has said that 1,450 digital Libraries being set up will spur digital job opportunities across the country.

According to the CS each ward in the country will get one digital laboratory as part of the Government’s plan to put up a digital superhighway in conjunction with Technical, Industrial, Vocational and Entrepreneurship Training Centres (TIVETs) or even at the village level.

‘The purpose of this is to ensure that each youth gets adequate digital skills and secure digital jobs sourced by the government from global technological companies since there are no longer white-collar jobs,’ said the CS.

Mr Owalo said there are a lot of opportunities in the digital space and that a lot of money can be made from the jobs and even business opportunities.

In addition to the Digital hubs, the CS said the government is establishing 25,000 free public wi-fi spots in its plan to ensure there is an affordable or free internet across the country.

‘The Wi fi hot spots will start in the markets where our mothers and sisters are domiciled by way of itinerary trade, we want to move away from traditional way of doing business by harnessing technology,’ added the CS.

The CS said that the government is also digitizing its services and has so far digitized 4200 service from 350 services accessed online three months ago even as it moves to replace the physical national identity cards with an electronic identification system.

‘We are also going to unveil cheap smart enabled phone in the next two months which will retail at 40 dollars, this will be a game changer in this country as we are enhancing connectivity, access and leveraging on technology to increase number of people earning a gainful income,’ elaborated the CS.

Awed by a young man who made a fortune from online platform after undergoing online jobs training, the CS encouraged youths to embrace the program so as to earn a living and support their parents.

‘The online jobs will propel one from a learner to an instant earner able to gain huge income from online job platform,’ CS encouraged the youths.

The CS made the remarks at the Eldama Ravine Technical and Vocational College during the launch of the Jitegemee digital library at the institution.

The ICT Principal Secretary Engineer John Tanui said there are many opportunities in different economic sectors that can be harnessed through the digital space.

He said the country has a huge population of the youth that is well trained and vibrant that the world is desiring to get their services through labour exchange.

‘There are plenty of opportunities across world with talent gaps, we have the talent and you have seen in the recent past the number of presidents that are visiting our country, one of the key discussions they have is labour exchange, how to access our young people to be able to work for those nations from home,’ divulged the PS.

He said digital connectivity will allow people to work remotely and that there are a lot of jobs that are now accepting people to work remotely.

Tanui added that Business Outsourcing is also a key sector where our youths can work from home and support top tier one companies in the world, earning a gainful income.

He said the government is targeting 94 TIVET centres where each can train 300 youths on online jobs and that this will create a potential income Sh1.6 billion annually to the economy.

The PS said they have companies that have a lot of jobs currently and are being linked with the 94 TIVETS.

‘If we fully utilise up to a million young people on online jobs the income they will get will surpass the diaspora remittance we get annually,’ said the PS.

On his part Baringo Governor Benjamin Cheboi thanked the president for the effort they are doing to put the youths to employment saying they will greatly reduce the pressure on the grass roots from youths demanding jobs from their offices.

He called on the CS to connect the public health facilities with internet so as to make the health services efficient.

Eldama Ravine Member of Parliament Musa Sirma called on the Ministry of Information to connect police stations with the internet saying they were still being run in an analogue manner.

He said his Constituency Development Fund committee will ensure they amend the CDF act so as to allocate money to the digital hubs so as to assure its sustainability going forward.

He pledged to supplement the Ministry’s efforts by putting up 11 more digital hubs across Eldama Ravine Constituency.

The launch was also attended by Trans Nzoia senator and chair of Senate ICT committee, Allan Chesang who encouraged the youths saying he made money through digital marketing.

Also present was Baringo County Member of Parliament Florence Jematia, ICT authority CEO Stanley Kamanguya and his KONZA Technpolis Counterpart John Paul Okwiri.

The digital hub which is domiciled at the college received 100 computers last December and has so far trained 80 youths who are benefitting by earning income from online platform.

The College Principal Eric Tanui called for improvement of internet stability and more online work platforms to engage the youths on training.

Source: Kenya News Agency