The Cabinet Secretary for Education, Fred Matiang’i has defended stoppage of school based university programmes under which institutions conduct Bachelor of Education programmes for teachers.
He said the programme was too limited in duration to provide the required conduct hours for provision of quality higher education and the intellectual rigor that defines quality university programmes.
He said the programmes should be converted into part time programmes to ensure that the students secure the knowledge and competencies that define quality higher education useful to the students and the society at large.
Dr. Matiang’i said this in public lecture during the 15th Universities Education Exhibition and Discourse, at The Catholic University of Eastern Africa on Tuesday.
The Cabinet Secretary expressed concern that expansion of higher education in an environment of limited resources had affected the quality of university education.
He expressed the need for Kenyans to be frank with each other and address the weaknesses in the provision of quality University.
“There is going to be a time when you will be forced to provide that you acquired university education,” Dr. Matiang’i noted, saying the degree certificates must mean something beyond the paper and ink bearing the certificates.
He recommended the establishment of strong internal and external quality assurance systems to manage the changes resulting from diversification of university education.
He also expressed the need for strengthening the commission for University Education to effectively perform its regulatory role in universities in Kenya.
Earlier the Principal Secretary for Education, Prof. Collette Suda said commercialisation of higher education was hurting the sector.
The Chairman for Commission for University Education, Prof. Chacha Nyaigotti-Chacha, said universities exist to offer education and not to issue certificates.
“In the past, you went to the university to get an education,” Prof. Chacha noted, saying Universities should offer education and not simply issue certificates.
Present included the Chair Vice Chancellor’s Committee for Public Universities, Prof. Francis Aduol, the Chancellors of public and private universities, and students among others.
