Process Ruto Must Follow For Him to Scrap HELB Funds.
President William Ruto stirred a debate when he unveiled plans to abolish the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) in favor of establishing a National Skills and Funding Council to link the two levels and create a credit transfer system to facilitate academic development.
On January 1, Ruto declared in Mombasa that the National Education Fund will mobilize grants, bursaries, and scholarships from corporate and public donors to pay non-tuition fees.
“To bridge the current higher education funding gap of up to 45 per cent, the government will establish the National Skills and Funding Council that amalgamates HELB, TVET, and University Funding Board,” he stated.
But what would it take for the president’s proposal to eliminate funding to become a reality?
According to lawyer Charles Kanjama, the president cannot alter the fund without the approval of parliament.
“The most the president can do is to propose and recommend HELB to be amended by a different statute,
“He can achieve this through the office of the Attorney General, where the AG can draft a bill to repeal the HELB Act to replace it with the president’s funding bill.
“This will only require a simple majority in parliament to be passed and made into law,” he added.
Ruto made his decision based on the report collected by the task force established to assess the Competency Based Curriculum, which was directed by Prof Raphael Munavu.
In 1995, an Act of Parliament CAP 213A of the Laws of Kenya established HELB to subsidize Kenyan students seeking higher education.
The idea was to create a revolving fund from which future generations may draw to further their studies.
Similarly, the president highlighted the government’s plan to invest Ksh15 billion to equip 70 Technical Training and Vocational Educational Training Institution (TVET) institutions to help trainees learn and prepare them for the labor market.
The Kenya Kwanza Alliance vowed in its Education Charter to finish the development of Vocational Training Centres in each ward, as well as to ensure that every constituency has a (TVET) institution.
Process Ruto Must Follow For Him to Scrap HELB Funds
