President William Ruto has announced intentions to disband the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) and replace it with a new funding organization for higher education.
Ruto announced that he will combine the HELB, TVET, and University Funding Board into the National Skill and Funding Council.
Ruto claims that the action will double the existing Higher Education Loans Board financing from Ksh11 billion to Ksh22 billion and remove interest on HELB loans.
The government also plans to hire 3,000 tutors for TVET colleges and an extra 30,000 teachers for basic education to address the teacher shortage in public schools.
Read: TSC To Hire 30, 000 Teachers In 2023
During the election campaigns, President William Ruto pledged to hire 116,000 teachers. However, this was postponed due to the economic situation in the country.
Ezekiel Machogu, the cabinet secretary for education, announced this on 17th November 2022 and added that the hiring is to take place gradually.
The government also plans to invest at least Ksh15 billion in 70 TVET colleges to help with student training.
The Kenya Kwanza Alliance also committed in its Education Charter to ensuring that every constituency has a Technical Training and Vocational Educational Training Institution as well as to complete the construction of Vocational Training Centers in each ward (TVET).
“Within the first two years, we will establish and fully equip a Tvet institution in each of the remaining 52 constituencies,” the charter states.
He also suggested creating a public university and boosting the existing three technical universities to eight across the eight regions.
