The National Open University will receive its charter this month, President Ruto has said.
Speaking during this year’s Madaraka Day celebrations in Meru, the President said that courses have already been offloaded for commissioning later this year.
He noted that the Open University is a game changer in the fast-changing tech-savvy world and will admit over 20,000 students who attained university entry points but missed admissions to enroll and study online at their comfort of their homes.
Ruto added that the Ministry of Education has already reached an agreement with some universities to absorb students.
Touting the new financial model for institutions of higher learning, he said that the country was inching closer towards competing with its peers globally in its move to contribute to national socio-economic transformation through innovation, research and development.
“The new financial model will make universities financially stable. It will also increase the number of students enrolling in institutions in the country,” he said.
He added that he was in pursuit of exploiting all available options to make education accessible, affordable and inclusive for all Kenyans.
Ruto said that beyond subsidizing education in primary, day secondary schools and universities, Kenya was re-imagining education financing to embrace delivery of equity and broader access with special needs attention to enable vulnerable learners realize their right to education.
He pointed out that the recent employment of 35,000 teachers in the country was monumental and precedential drive to improve the teacher to pupil ratio countrywide.
The President further assured that the Ministry of Education was designing Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) to make it responsive to education needs at the point of country’s social, cultural and economic development.
By Alfred Kimosop
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