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"id": 202183,
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"speaker_name": "Prof. Olweny",
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"legal_name": "Patrick Ayiecho Olweny",
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"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to support this Motion. University education in this country has come from a point where it was affordable. It was almost free and most of the expenses regarding university education were supported by the Government. However, it has now become almost a dream to get to university. Many Kenyans who want to get university education today, even if they are qualified, find it close to impossible. As an educationist, I feel that it is the right of the young Kenyans to get university education. In many of our neighbouring countries, university education is not as expensive as it is in Kenya today. In fact, if you take the actual cost of education in our public universities, you will find that it is terrible and horrible. For someone to pursue a Degree in Medicine at the University of Nairobi, the actual amount that is payable, including the Government bursary and all the other expenses, is more than Kshs500,000. If you go to Makerere University, this will be less than Kshs300,000. So, I do not know where Kenyans are running to. I do not know what the aim is here and yet, we want Kenyans to get education. This has made many young Kenyans who want to pursue university or college education to be virtually beggars, begging for money to pay for their education. This is very embarrassing to the youth who want to get higher education. The Joint Admissions Board cut-off point is also very high. The qualification to join any university according to the Kenyan system is a C+ and above. If you do not have those qualifications, the JAB will not give you a chance to join a university. C+ is the lowest qualification. That is just enough for one to join any university across the world, according to the Kenyan education system. That also makes university education another dream for the youth who would like to join universities. So, to qualify for the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) loans, one needs to qualify to join public universities. To qualify to join public universities, you need a B+ and above. That means one needs to attain grade \"A\" or a very strong \"B\". Anything below that, you cannot qualify to get HELB loans. That is very discouraging to the youth of this country who want to get university education. Even those who get HELB loans do not get enough. That is why I support this Motion. They get peanuts! It is okay for the Government to meet tuition fees for public university education, which is quite a bit of money. But there is a lot that is yet to be paid by students in public universities. That is where they need to be assisted by HELB. The students are given a small amount of money to meet the other costs like accommodation, purchase of books, stationery and other facilities. Even part of the tuition is still being paid through the HELB loans. If HELB is serious about supporting our students, let it give them the full loan. It should not just give them small amounts of money. That leaves the students to be beggars around. Some of them live in very poor conditions at the universities, just because they do not have enough money. That is a shame to our system. It is a shame to our universities. It is also a shame to this Government which is supporting those students at the universities and yet, they live in very poor conditions. So, my suggestion here is: If HELB wants to support our students, let it give them the full amount that they want. Some students get Kshs20,000 while others get almost Kshs50,000. What criteria is being used to arrive at that kind of discrimination? Those who get less have a lot of 4168 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES September 26, 2007 problems. Many of them organise harambees. But very few people contribute these days towards harambees. Let HELB be serious in supporting our students. For HELB to give adequate funds, it should be serious in recovering the loans that have been given out. Some people are actually working and they are not servicing those loans. That is one failure. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I think Prof. Mango is right when she says that HELB would be more effective, transparent and helpful to our students in the universities, if it was devolved. That is if it was taken to the constituency level. We have a good experience with the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF) which has been devolved. It is doing very well. Today, we have a very good experience with the bursaries, which have also been devolved to the constituency level. It is at the constituency where we identify real needy students. HELB does not have people in locations and sub-locations to identify the needy students. That is why the distribution of loans is lopsided. Most of it goes to the rich parts of the country. Students from the richer parts of the country are the ones who get it because, probably, they are more aggressive. Usually, the poor students are very shy. The poor always do not come forward. So, they end up being marginalised. They end up being disadvantaged. So, they do not get the loans. We want that loan facility to be devolved to the constituency level. That way, we can have committees that would help us in identifying the needy students and those who actually qualify for it. My feeling is that anybody who has the qualification to be admitted into a university - that is C+ and above - should be supported by HELB. That now takes me to those who are in private universities. Those students in our private universities and those who have joined universities outside this country should also be allowed to apply for those loans. It should not be restricted to only students in public universities. Even some public universities are discriminated too much. They favour students with B+ and above. What about other students who also qualify to join universities? Let those in private universities and others who have joined universities abroad be allowed to benefit from those HELB loans. After all, at the end of the day, they will repay. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, with those few comments, I beg to support."
}