Prof. Kamar, this is just a tip of the iceberg

Prof. Kamar, this is just a tip of the iceberg

I take time to appreciate the great work that HELB has done to poor university students. Without the higher learning lending institution, poor people like us would have not reaped from the fountains of knowledge in the university. We owe it our present status and the best present we can give to the institution is to faithfully and promptly pay back our loans, not only for sustainability of the program but also for other students to benefit.

The Higher Education minister must be commended for rising up against loan repayment dodgers. She noted that graduates must repay their loans promptly to increase access to education. She went further to reiterate that beneficiaries that default on repayment risk losing out on state jobs.

Bu I would love the good Prof. to focus more on the quality of graduates released from universities because this is the root cause of the loan defaulting. I believe that most graduates wish to promptly pay back their loans. If graduates would immediately get well paying and secure jobs immediately they graduate, repayment would not really be a problem. Most of us are dodgers simply because the little they get can not make ends meet, let alone be sliced to pay back HELB loans. How do you tell a person who has been jobless for the past seven years to promptly pay back loans?

We seem to be more focused on monetary matters. University lecturers have just gone on strike seeking salary increments. The government itself is piling pressure on jobless graduates to pay back loans. Universities are busy implementing the double intake policy yet the few stagnated resources in our universities can not cope with student numbers. Few lectures, limited lecture facilities and accommodation have continued to compromise quality education. University campuses and new universities are opened day in day out. The Kenyan Public University Education system seems extremely concerned with numbers. Quality is increasingly becoming compromised. It would be better if we even have only one university that is well equipped in capital and human resource which can produce graduates who can adapt to the job market demands.

What emphasis have we put on quality university education? Do the engineers, social scientists and health professionals who stream the market from college have the necessary technical skills to adapt to the swiftly changing job market?

How well have we moved swiftly to curb cases of exam irregularities, sexually transmitted marks and ethnicity in our learning institutions? A lot of talk and no action.

Solving loan defaulting in Kenya would be very simple of our universities would be well equipped to produce properly baked graduates who can easily get jobs that can secure them as they pay back HELB loans. This should be the major focus of the minister. In the meanwhile, let us work hard in these hardship times to heed to the minister’s call.

Chrispory Juma Ombuya,

Former student, Moi University, School of Public Health,

Resident of Oyugis town