Lead image for Make varsity education funding realistic.
The government's proposed overhaul of university funding is being marketed as a bold reform that will expand access to higher education.
Yet, beneath the polished promises lies a troubling reality that Kenya risks replacing an imperfect funding system with one that could condemn thousands of young people to years of financial hardship.
Education has never been an ordinary commodity. It is a public investment that fuels innovation, creates jobs, strengthens institutions and drives national development.
That is why governments across the world subsidise higher education. To transform university education into a debt-financed venture is to shift the burden of nation-building from the State to vulnerable families.
The proposed model, which seeks to abolish scholarships and channel more resources into student loans, raises fundamental questions.
What happens to graduates who leave university only to find a job market already struggling with unemployment? Kenya produces tens of thousands of graduates every year, many of whom remain unemployed or underemployed for years. Saddling them with loan repayments almost immediately after graduation is not empowerment; it is financial punishment.
A graduate without a stable income cannot repay a loan. Instead, interest accumulates, defaults increase and debt follows them into adulthood. Young professionals who should be building businesses, buying homes and starting families will instead spend years servicing education loans. Such a system suppresses economic growth instead of stimulating it.