- A Sh5.2 billion funding shortfall has left four in five targeted TVET trainees without scholarship support, forcing some to drop out.
- The State Department for TVET has reported a cumulative funding deficit of Sh14.97 billion over three financial years since 2023/24.
- Parliament’s Education Committee has resolved to summon the Cabinet Secretary for Finance to address the ongoing scholarship funding crisis.
A KSh5.2 billion shortfall in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) scholarship funding left four in five targeted trainees without financial support last year, pushing some out of college altogether while others turned to MPs and well-wishers to stay enrolled.
Data tabled in Parliament shows the State Department for TVET set out to fund 440,826 trainees but managed to support only 89,054, which is barely one in five. The department required Sh8.72 billion to meet that target but received just Sh3.5 billion, a shortfall later narrowed slightly by an additional Sh1 billion through the supplementary budget, which allowed it to fund the 89,054 trainees it eventually reached.
“We have been very intentional in bringing these young people to our institutions, but the Exchequer is our biggest undoing,” TVET Principal Secretary Esther Muoria told the National Assembly Education Committee during a review of the 2025/26 budget.
The State Department says the funding gap has persisted since the Student-Centred Funding Model (SCFM) was rolled out in 2023, with scholarship allocations consistently falling short of what eligible trainees need.
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Under the model, scholarships and loans are allocated according to each student’s assessed financial need, with TVET institutions funded through the Variable Scholarship and Loan Funding (VSLF) approach that replaced the earlier Differentiated Unit Cost (DUC) model.
University scholarships fall under the Universities Fund (UF), while TVET scholarships remain the responsibility of the State Department for TVET, which oversees 33 national polytechnics and 213 technical and vocational colleges.
The shortfalls have grown year on year. In 2023/24, the department needed Sh4.8 billion but received Sh1.95 billion, a Sh2.89 billion deficit. The following year, its requirement rose to Sh9.35 billion against an allocation of just Sh2.5 billion, leaving a Sh6.85 billion gap. In 2025/26, the department required Sh8.72 billion and received Sh3.5 billion, a Sh5.2 billion shortfall. Combined, the three years have left a cumulative deficit of Sh14.97 billion.
“We have almost Sh15 billion that has not been expended from our budget from the financial year 2023/2024, and that also explains some debts in our institutions,” Muoria said.
Enrolment keeps rising despite funding gaps
The shortfalls have emerged even as the government promotes TVET as a driver of economic growth and a key pillar of the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA). Enrolment has continued climbing, fuelled by the expansion of colleges, stronger marketing and the rollout of Competency-Based Education and Training (CBET), with nearly 9,000 students who qualified for university admission under the 2025 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) opting for TVET courses instead this year. Funding, however, has not kept pace, leaving growing numbers of trainees unable to clear fees and complete their programmes, and pushing more of them to rely on politicians and well-wishers to remain in college.
Education Committee chairman Julius Melly said TVET should not be taken for granted given the government’s stated focus on equipping young people with skills. “As a committee, we shall invite the Cabinet Secretary for Finance to appear before us so that we can find a solution to the scholarship crisis,” he said.
President William Ruto introduced the Student-Centred Funding Model in May 2023 to address financing challenges facing public universities and TVET colleges. For TVET trainees, however, inadequate allocations have limited the model’s impact, leaving continuing students dependent on other forms of support.
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Scholarships are administered by the State Department for TVET in collaboration with the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB), which hosts the Higher Education Financing (HEF) platform.
The mismatch between enrolment and funding has hit trainees from poor and vulnerable households hardest, with those unable to clear outstanding fees risking dropout before completing their programmes and acquiring the skills they were encouraged to pursue.
However, the department has reported some relief in the current financial year, saying its Sh8.32 billion scholarship requirement has been met through an allocation of Sh9.2 billion.
By Masaki Enock
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