The government allayed fears that the 2022 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) candidates will stay home for more months after the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) delayed posting them to universities.
Parliamentary Public Investments Committee (PIC) on Tuesday, April 25, directed all 170,000 students who scored C+ and above in the 2022 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education to receive placement letters. All the students, it added, would also join public institutions across the country.
The statement was made after the committee met the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) led by Agnes Wahome.
“The more than 170,000 students who are awaiting university placement will be enrolled in public universities that have a capacity of over 190,000 slots,” the Committee directed.
KUCCPS assured the parliamentary committee that public universities had the capacity to accommodate 194,000 students under a government-sponsored program.
“As the PIC Committee charged with safeguarding public investments in education and Governance, we are pleased that we have stopped the irregular allocation of public funds to private universities,” the Committee stated, adding that public institutions had the capacity to accommodate all students.
The committee added that placing students in public, rather than private universities would help government-funded institutions crippled with debt to survive.
“The move will further protect Kenyans from the placements and exorbitant fees charged by private universities,” the Committee stated.
PIC on Thursday, March 9, exposed private universities receiving money from the government without transparency and accountability.
In 2017, the government received Ksh8.7 billion as capital from the government, but no audit was done to determine how the funds were utilised.
While the government will no longer sponsor students to private universities, it will continue providing capitation to those already placed in previous years.
KUCCPS was yet to reopen the application portal so that 2022 KCSE students would select the universities of their choice.