The ministry of Higher Education, Science and technology is mooting a plan to ensure that each former province has a national polytechnic and every county a technical training institution (TTI), an official from the ministry says. Kenya and Mombasa Polytechnics which are now operating as university colleges will be replaced in the process.
The government is out to spend Ksh 4.48 billion in donor funding to strengthen vocational and technical training countrywide to mold much needed skills. The plan includes building new technical institutions and elevating some to national polytechnic status.
According to the official from the ministry the institutions which have been selected for the upgrading to polytechnic status are: Gusii Institute of Science and Technology for Nyanza, Sigara gara TTI for Westen, Kitale TTI for Rift Valley, Kabete TTI for Nairobi, Machakosi TTI for Eastern, Nyeri TTI for Central, Mombasa TTI for Mombasa, and North Eastern Province (NEP) TTI for North Eastern.
The Netherlands government will donate Ksh 2.1 billion to purchase modern equipment and train teachers while the African Development Bank will contribute Ksh 3.1 billion to be used in build new technical institutes to replace those promoted to polytechnic status.
Prof Harry Kanne, the Higher Education secretary says that there will be a total of 13 new polytechnics to increase students intake to at least 20,000 for those seeking vocational training thus economic growth.
The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports are running and reviving more than 750 youth polytechnics, vocational training schools countrywide. Experts says that the huge money initiatives is out to increase access to higher education as well as fight biting youth unemployment.
Notwithstanding that young people form 60 per cent of the Kenyan population: Youth unemployment has been rising and the accompanying serious social problems of increased crime and dependency present a major challenge to Kenya's coalition government, an expert points out.
By upgrading some technical colleges to national polytechnics and developing youth polytechnics, the government hopes to improve access to training among the youth, improving their chances of securing jobs.
The youth polytechnics will give Kenyan youth an opportunity to specialize in courses such as carpentry, accounting, welding, mechanics, catering and teaching thus providing vocational skills for self employment.
The government wants youth polytechnics upgraded to offer training to meet the market demand in courses such as electrical technologies, construction, refrigeration and air conditioning technology, food processing, information and communication technology, and leather technology.
"We are implementing a new curriculum in youth polytechnics to help meet the demands of the job market," says the Ministry of Youth Affairs Assistant Minister Kabando wa Kabando. The curriculum would enable trainees to progress through various levels of technical training and obtain a technical degree. Experts says this is a lubricant for Kenya to be industrialist by 2020 and the realization of Vision 2030.
It is envisioned that these tertiary reforms will also foresee the transformation of at least one youth polytechnic in each 210 electoral constituencies into a centre of excellence - better equipped and developed with the capacity of training more than 200 students from the current situation where some can hardly accommodate 50 students.
Statistics from the government's Economic Survey for 2010 showed the number of students enrolled in youth polytechnics had been rising and stood at 31,344 in 2009, up from 29,700 in 2008. But the upgrading of Kenya Polytechnic and Mombasa Polytechnic last year led to a decrease of 14,000 students enrolled in technical institutions countrywide.
Higher education has for some years focused on the expansion of universities at the expense of technical institutions and teacher colleges in the pursuit of resolving an admission crisis plaguing higher education. "This is dangerous to the economy as it needs both professional and technical skills to drive growth," says Prof Francis Gichaga, chancellor, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT).
Universities have been collaborating with technical institutions and changing the programmes offered. The government recently announced a ban on such take-overs, concerned that mid-tier training institutions were being wiped out.
"Despite the rapid expansion of higher education over the past two decades, challenges to access, content, quality and equity remain," says the Kenya Human Development Report 2009 . The report co-authored by the government and United Nations Development Programme points out inadequate capacity to cater for growing demand for university places, a mismatch between skills acquired and the demands of industry, gender imbalances in the sciences and humanities, rigid admission criteria and limited opportunities for credit transfer, as the embedding challenges.
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