Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba said the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) has no money to loan Kenya Medical Training college (KMTC) students due to lack of budget.
Appearing before the parliament education and health committees, Ogamba told the legislatures that KMTC students have not been receiving the loan as compared to their counterparts from Universities and others colleges.
“I would like to inform parliament that HELB provides estimates for students both new and continuing with estimates based on information provided by the Universities and other institutions under the Ministry of Education with the budget allocated to HELB for funding students, usually for predetermined number of students in Universities and other institutions,” he said
He further clarified that some universities and training institutions were outside the ambit of the ministry, and processes their budgets through relevant ministries.
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“HELB was allocated Kshs 84.5 billion in this financial year against a requirement of Kshs 138.5 billion,” he said.
Ogamba said HELB had supported KMTC to the tune of Kshs 1.2 billion in 2022/2023 based on resources that were provided by the college through the ministry of health. He further clarified that before that, HELB provided Kshs 468 million for loans to the KMTC students based on the support received from the USAID for five years between 2014 and 2019, and that it was the ministry’s policy to support all students pursuing higher education.
“If HELB is allocated the function of supporting all higher learning institutions students, funding must follow, and it is clear that we have not refused to fund students in higher learning institutions with challenges remaining on budget, that is the big outstanding issue in the room,” CS said.
On his part, KMTC CEO, Kelly Oluoch told the law makers that the exclusion of the college from regular funding raises concerns, which are firmly embedded within the constitution, with Article 27 affirming that every individual is equal before the law.
He added that the constitution mandates support for students at the institutions, which has a population of 68, 000 students and 90 campuses across the country, stating by HELB restricting funding to students within the institutions under the Ministry of Education, the state may be failing in its constitutional mandates to foster equal educational opportunities.
“We currently have a deficit of Kshs 1.5 billion of unpaid schools fees with KMTC always seeking support for funding to ensure that student misses learning. We have 34 per cent of those who get admission not reporting while 27 per cent of our students defer their studies due to lack of fees,” he said.
By Brian Ndigo
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