A Moi University Don Thomas Cheruiyot has said the government should increase university fees if they expect universities to provide quality services.
Prof Cheruiyot said students in the higher institutions of learning cannot continue paying Sh16, 000 per year and expect to get quality education saying universities have no option but to review the fees upward despite the idea being quite sensitive.
The Don also told the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms chaired by Prof Raphael Munavu to review the governance structure in universities to reduce boardroom wars between the vice chancellors, university councils and ministry of education officers.
“University council’s role in universities should only be supervisory while the Public Service Commission recruits VCs,” he said.
Addressing the same gathering, Elgeyo Marakwet Governor Wisley Rotich called on the national government to cost the function of ECDE and devolve the resources to the county governments to improve the quality of education at the ECDE level.
Rotich regretted that teachers under the Teachers Service Commission were well remunerated compared to those at the ECDE which is the foundation of education who are poorly remunerated.
“The county governments inherited a function that is equal to the TSC when ECDE was devolved but it was not followed by resources resulting to a demotivated staff,” he said.
The governor added that the ministry of education should empower county education and TSC directors to make decisions at the county level saying currently they only send letters to their respective headquarters who are expected to act.
He called on the ministry of education to promote teachers to head schools based on merit and performance instead of looking at seniority saying some non performing principals have run down schools as they demotivate even the hardworking teachers.
Rotich also called on the government to ensure that they allocate funds to be advanced as loans specifically for TVETS so that students willing to join the institutions do not compete with those at the university.
The chairperson county education board Risper Berem called on the government to reintroduce and inculcate morals and values through the education system saying religious education should be emphasized.
She called for caution in adopting all international policies saying they should be domesticated to suit the African way of doing things citing the ban of caning in schools which she said was rushed.
“We have seen what the ban has done in our schools to a point where students don’t respect teachers,” she said.
The chairperson called on the government to develop a research fund to cover research in both universities and middle level colleges.
