Kenyan Universities Releasing Half-baked Graduates into the Job Market

Kenyan universities are releasing half-baked professionals into the job market and this is likely to hurt the country’s economy.

Employers are decrying the low level of the current breed of university graduates who only appear to have perfected the skill of using what others have invented and with no knowledge to make anything new.

According to the World Bank, the current crop of Kenyan university graduates have no practical skills which are the economic backbone that the country needs for industrial takeoff as well as maintenance.

According to employers, universities are releasing engineers who cannot create anything but only explaining how those existing were made, teachers who cannot explain concepts as well as doctors who can only make it as pharmacists, equipped with little or no practical skills.

In the past years, when Kenya had only few universities, graduates who were released into the job market were both inventive and innovative as compared to the current graduates.

The current state of unsatisfactory university education has been blamed on the numerous universities that have mushroomed and shifted and monetized the sector. Many institutions of higher learning have become like commercial institutions where only those who manage them are concerned of how much they make from the students than what they give back. There have been cases of institutions selling out degrees and certificates to individuals who have never stepped into a classroom just because they have cash.

Instances of students, especially of the female gender graduating from universities by virtue of according sexual favors to lecturers are rampant in the Kenyan universities. This has led to employees being suspicious of the First Class degrees being issued by some institutions as it emerges that some students, especially ladies are awarded such degrees without any merit.

In developed countries, their economies rely heavily on researches done by universities. Such countries have a reliable workforce that is based on professionalism as well as skills that are often needed for industrial revolution. Kenya currently lacks such a workforce since many individuals that universities are releasing into the field are professionals of theories but academic dwarfs in terms of the practical aspect.

Article by Juma Fred.