Time to reconsider our tertiary education system

By Machel Waikenda
twitter@MachelWaikenda

Can the Uhuru administration promise the new leadership in Central Africa Republic teachers, nurses, artisans and bookkeepers to re-transit her war-battered nation to the 21st Century? Does Kenya have the once-famed pool of human resources to make a difference in Somalia, South Sudan, and even, DR Congo?

Perhaps not. Walk with me through this. Kenya is currently carrying out an exercise that will see transition of those who finished primary school to secondary school. In another couple of weeks, the results for last year’s KCSE will be announced and another group of students will move to colleges and university.

However, the country continues to record a poor transition rate which leaves a lot of students out of school. It is a worrying state of affairs that needs to be addressed before we raise a generation of schooled but uneducated and unskilled young people.

We need major reforms in the education sector starting from the basic level to tertiary level. This should be a collective effort that should be handled by both the County and National governments to ensure Kenya has the best possible education system. A system that caters for all the needs of the young people to create a pool of an educated and skilled workforce.

Other than building more schools and equipping them with the necessary equipment and teachers, we need a system that accommodates all students moving from one level of education to the other. Sadly, we are at a situation where our secondary schools and tertiary institutions cannot accommodate those who come from the lower levels. According to the Constitution, County Governments are in charge of basic education institutions and village polytechnics. This gives Counties an opportunity to help reform the education system. Polytechnics were major institutions in the 1970s and 80s and helped government manage the low rate of transition to institutions of higher learning. Polytechnics were responsible for bringing up skilled artisans in areas such as carpentry, welding, mechanics and tailoring. But with the glorification of university education, these institutions were demonised and run down as people shunned them. Efforts to revive them have not been successful but with the low transition rate from primary and secondary schools, it is time to rethink the role of polytechnics.

Youth polytechnics started as low-cost, post-primary training centers in rural areas in the 1960s to help stem the problem of low enrolment in secondary schools. The institutions were aimed at absorbing young people who failed to enroll in secondary schools. They specialise in courses such as carpentry, basic accounting/book-keeping, welding, mechanics, catering and teaching and have been Kenya’s most important institutions providing vocational skills.

To start with, these institutions must be renamed and converted into technical institutions. We must get rid of the name “polytechnic” and rebrand them to kill the notion that they are set aside for poor performers. Polytechnics have over the years produced even better skilled artisans than most of the numerous private and public universities.

A while back, holding a higher national diploma from a polytechnic or technical college was considered as equitable to a university degree. However, due to the eroded value that has been attached to these institutions, this is no longer the case. County Governments must work on building new institutions instead of converting technical training colleges into affiliate campuses. Even while we seek highly educated university graduates, we also need lower level graduates for effective production. This is why we need to rebuild middle-level technical training colleges and polytechnics. As a developing country, Kenya needs skilled labour and village polytechnics when well structured give this opportunity. When well equipped, these institutions can help the country come up with the skilled labour.

We rarely realise that some of the contractors we give jobs such as construction of our houses are not university graduates. Most of them honed their skills in polytechnics and then gained experience in construction sites in the village. Kenya Science, Mbagathi and KTTC over the years provided us with Science and technical teachers or instructors who taught in our universities. This really underscores the need for these institutions in our education system. The government must provide more funding to strengthen vocational and technical training countrywide, and help boost the country’s skills base. This should include building new technical institutions and elevating some to national polytechnic status.