Education CS Rejects VCs Report on University Reforms

Prof. George Magoha, the Cabinet Secretary for Education has rejected the report on University reforms done by various universities Vice-Chancellors (VCs).

The Cabinet Secretary said, during a luncheon organized by the Kenya Editors Guild, that the VCs were supposed to come up with the report on the reforms to be made for higher learning institutions, and first, discuss it with him before the Commission of University of Education (CUE) report.

“I will not accept their (VCs) report. It is dead on arrival and some of the things they are proposing for the university reforms are completely abhorrent,” he said.

“They were supposed to come up with the report and engage me first, but now they have gone ahead to publish it,” he added.

In their report, the Vice-Chancellors had opposed the merger of universities saying that universities will definitely be admitting more students owing to the hundred percent transition to secondary school.

They had stated that the expansion of universities and the law that there should be at least one university in every county is a reality and it should be accepted.

Prof. Magoha, however, does not agree with VC’s argument that having the right size of universities will reduce numbers of students. In fact, he says that the expansion was meant to curb the cheating problem, which he solved while serving as KNEC boss.

“The president is also keen on having these higher learning institutions offer quality services rather than having a big number of students,” he said.

They discussed matters concerning Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC), Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), CUE, teacher management and university financing, which in the Committee of Public Universities, the vice-chancellors had proposed that students pay more tuition fee and the government funding be tied to the number of students as opposed to just allocating universities cash randomly.

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