By Maritim Evans
Perhaps students demanding for Higher Education Loans Board
(Helb) funds would have waited a little longer to give time the board to
realign its budget as it prepares to fund more students this year.
Enrolment in universities has been increasing over the past
three years and the board has been under pressure to fund the increasing number
of students who are admitted to public universities.
Despite that, loan defaulters have not been able to pay the
loan in time prompting the board to seek alternative source of money to fund
other students who are studying in various universities across the country.
It is not business as usual this year in the board since it
used a lot of money from donors including the World Bank last year. The board
had stayed for few months before it funded first applicants last year. Some of
the students who applied for the funds then had to wait until almost mid this
year in order to get the loan from the board.
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| University students preparing to demonstrate. PHOTO/COURTESY |
Statistics available on the Helb
website show that more than 110,000 students applied for the loans at the end
of last year, up from the 2013 figure of 65,000, while government capitation
has been rising relatively slowly.
Out of the 110,000 first-time
applicants, only around half, 65,000, qualified for loans, but not all would
get the money.
In the last financial year that ended
in July Helb had sought US$170 million from the government as capitation, but
received only US$28.3 million, a decrease of 15% of the request.
Further statistics show that the loans
agency has targeted raising the student financing budget four-fold from the
current US$63.5 million to US$224.7 million in 2018.
Only 10 in 100 loan defaulters have
been able to pay back the money to the board. This makes it hard for the board
to finance the incoming students thus making it look for another source of
money.
University
education in Kenya, a 2009 World Bank report showed, is among the most
expensive in the region. With over 50% of Kenyan households considered poor,
most parents and guardians require supplementary funding to keep their children
in class.
In
conclusion, the government should allocate more funds to the board so that it
can fund ever-increasing number of students joining universities every year in
time.
