Tambach teachers college upgraded to University

Tambach teachers college upgraded to University. [File]

A teachers training college (TTC) that has churned out tutors since 1991 is set to be turned into a university college, which is expected to open its doors to students from September.

This follows the gazettement of a notice for the establishment of a new University college in Kerio Valley, Elgeyo Marakwet County, which will be based at the iconic teachers training institution.

The legal notice to establish Kerio Valley University was issued on Thursday, after years of push by political leaders and locals for a higher education institution in the County.

Elgeyo Marakwet County began the push for a university 11 years ago before the attempt flopped in 2017 after the Ministry of Education barred institutions of higher learning from establishing satellite campuses.

Initially, a site in Mokoro location in Marakwet East had been proposed for the establishment of the new Kerio Valley University but a team of experts settled for Tambach TTC. By yesterday, the fate of the TTC was still unclear.

In September 2022, Elgeyo Marakwet Governor Wisley Rotich inaugurated a taskforce comprising professors and education experts as the county revived the stalled process of having a University within its borders.

The team was tasked with drawing a roadmap for the upgrading of the iconic TTC, into a new Kerio Valley University, which is a constituent college of University of Eldoret.

However, opinion is divided between locals and leaders supporting the proposal to establish the University at Tambach TTC, and those rooting for the setting up of a new institution of higher learning in Marakwet East, emerged during the clamor.

Clans in the initially proposed site Marakwet East  expressed disappointments over the decision to upgrade Tambach TTC to a University and demanded that the new institution of higher learning be set up in the vast Kerio Valley where they donated 2000 acres of land.

"Tambach should remain as a TTC and the government should establish a new University in Marakwet East where we have enough land," Eric Kiptoo proposed.

Abraham Kipkoech argued: "Kerio Valley is not secure. Tambach is ideal for a new University."

Former Cabinet Minister the late Nicholas Biwott had in 2016 opposed the upgrading of Tambach TTC to a university and instead proposed the building of a new University, arguing that such a move would disrupt the training of teachers.

Governor Rotich had two years ago confirmed that the land donated by the community was still available, and indicated that a choice on whether to upgrade Tambach TTC was on course.

“The gazette notice for the establishment of Kerio Valley University is finally out. This leads to the official opening of the University College in September this year. The University will start in Tambach and thereafter have campuses in Mokoro in Kerio Valley. Chebara Agricultural Training Centre and Kimwarer (Fluorspar Mining area),” Mr Rotich said yesterday.

He added: “We also thank the communities who provided land in the four sites where the new university college will have campuses.”

Elgeyo Marakwet locals, through scholars, had proposed to the defunct Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms recommended the establishment of a University, or a University Campus in each of the 47 counties, saying every devolved unit had unique challenges that needed research.

“Establishment of a University in every county will ensure that areas that have been marginalized by previous regimes contribute to development,” the locals had said in their memorandum.

On October 17, 2022, Governor Rotich received the report of the team led by Prof Thomas Cheruiyot (the current University of Eldoret Vice Chancellor), which conducted an evaluation of a 2016 technical inspection report by the Commission for University Education.

The chairman of the defunct Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms taskforce Prof Raphael Munavu had in 2022 asked counties to establish Universities with specific purposes, noting it was expensive to set up institutions of higher learning.

Earlier in 2017, the Ministry of Education slammed the brakes on the establishment of new satellite campuses by Universities without a thorough review by the government. The announcement piped the county’s dream of establishing a University.

The then Cabinet Secretary for Education, Science and Technology Fred Matiang’i warned that the quality of higher education had been compromised by what he described as the haphazard opening of satellite campuses that do not meet the standard requirements set by the Commission for University Education (CUE).

A team from CUE had inspected the TTC late last year but their report was not made public.