The move by the Ministry of Education to scale down direct entry points for public universities’ admission from 58 to 56 for girls and 60 to 58 for boys is laudable. This move will increase the number of students admitted in any public university nationwide. Since time immemorial, it has been a preserve of students hailing from national and provincial schools dominating public universities, as those from county schools and CDF schools were left out in the cut off points.
In addition students from humble backgrounds who had lost hope of attaining university education will now have their hopes come to fruition because the majority of these students are brought up in village schools with no adequate facilities. Funny enough, some schools have no libraries and computer laboratories aren’t good enough, while some take classes under tree shades.
It is worth noting that we are living in an era where education is vital, a tool to help curb ignorance, poverty and streamline any society. As such, having a nation with majority of its’ population educated is grooming the society towards dependable economic development.
The move is also set to improve the education sector in the private sector because 10,000 students have been allocated slots in the private universities to ensure that the negative image that has been associated these institutions. Some notable cases have been the closure of some institutions of higher learning especially in the private sector, which have been deemed a cut below the normal standards. Many institutions will have to meet the requirements to ensure that we face out the generation of half-baked graduates in our education system.
It is also important to note that the double entry system that was hatched and implemented in 2010 by the coalition government resulted in congestion of students in public universities, something that has raised questions about the credibility of our education system. Having 10,000 university students in private universities is a key move to which ensures that our sons and daughters get quality education.
In addition, more job opportunities will be created in private universities because more lecturers will be hired to meet the high number of students. This, in the long run, will help curb unemployment in our country.
This is a positive move that the national government has taken that will help the country to achieve 2030 vision goals. The same step should be embraced by our county governments to ensure that in each county we have a public university and other tertiary institutions in each and every ward to cater for all students both from needy and well to do backgrounds.
The government should also create employment opportunities that will help these students get jobs because it will not make any economical sense to have a population comprising mostly of unemployed people.