Varsity leaders urged to call off strike

The Ministry of Education is requesting the university students’ leadership to call off the demonstrations planned for Monday the 9th of September 2024 to reject the New Funding Model for Higher education.

Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Migos Ogamba urged the students to instead take advantage of a fresh review of the model to be done by two Working Committees and recommend areas of improving it.

The university students complained that the model had made higher learning a preserve for the rich.

University student leaders have expressed their dissatisfaction, calling on their fellow comrades to show up in numbers for a TISA TISA protest against the new funding model.

In a barrage of 21 letters from leaders of various university students associations, they demanded that the whole model be abolished if its Bands 4 and 5 cannot be withdrawn terming it discriminatory against the poor.

They further demanded efficiency in the Means Testing Instrument.

But in a bid to avoid disruption of learning, Education CS Julius Ogamba offered the students the opportunity to meaningfully participate and be involved through two short-term Working Groups to be formed to review the new funding model and recommend how it should be improved.

The Working Group’s specific Terms of Reference include:

Appraisal of the model’s implementation
Evaluate the Means Testing Instrument on students’ socio-economic realities
Assess the efficacy of funding reategorization appeals mechanism
Analyze the cost of univesities programmes, and
Review student loans structure