| |
|
| |
Kenya
Grapples with Brain-drain Troubles
By Katy Salmon
Inter Press Service
|
| |
|
| |
 NAIROBI,
Apr 11 (IPS) - Efforts to stem Kenya's debilitating 'brain drain'
of smart young students are becoming mired in controversy with
critics accusing the government of devaluing degrees and making
them an expensive waste of time. |
| |
|
| |
Every year, 30,000 Kenyans head overseas to study in Europe,
the United States and Asia because of the limited access to
higher education at home.
|
| |
|
| |
It takes time, persistence and money to arrange a passport
and travel papers from offices, including the government,
which are often unhelpful and sometimes downright obstructive,
but it does not stem the exodus.
|
| |
|
| |
After completion of their studies abroad, faced with the choice
of myriad opportunities for professional and financial success
or a return to recession and crime-riddled Kenya, thousands
opt to stay on, often illegally.
|
| |
|
| |
Inevitably, the loss of its ''brightest and best'' talent
has made Kenya's attempts to drag itself out of poverty and
progress down the road to development all the more difficult.
|
| |
|
| |
How to extend university education to satisfy the aspirations
of Kenyans is one question which has troubled successive governments.
In the last couple of years Kenya has attempted to meet this
through the introduction of parallel degree programmes.
|
| |
|
| |
Parallel students have to pay all of their fees themselves,
whereas the bulk of regular students' costs are met by the
government. The two groups are taught separately, although
they follow the same syllabus. But the experiment seems to
be turning into a serious mistake.
|
| |
|
| |
Parallel degrees have become devalued with educationists complaining
that academic standards are being sacrificed. Even, the government's
own Koech Report, August 1999, admits to a lack of ''equity
quality control and quality assurance'' in parallel programmes.
|
| |
|
| |
Students with grades as low as C plus are now gaining admission
to competitive professional courses like medicine and law
on parallel degree programmes. Previously, these demanding
subjects were reserved for students with A minus or above.
|
| |
|
| |
Not surprisingly, many of these students are struggling to
keep up with the rigorous standards demanded of them.
|
| |
|
| |
''It is highly probable that there will either be a high number
of drop-outs from the courses or mass failures since universities
cannot possibly remedy deficiencies of secondary schooling,''
says George Ogola, a journalist who specialises in education.
''Too many people are being encouraged to undertake degrees
even those not capable of study at that level.''
|
| |
|
| |
Ogola highlights another potentially dangerous flaw in the
government's programme. ''A number of universities are introducing
irrelevant degrees. There is already a surplus of Arts graduates.
We don't need anymore. Technical training should be strengthened
for it is here that Kenya has a deficit.''
|
| |
|
| |
The end result -- thousands of idle, frustrated, graduates
who are unable to find jobs -- is undoubtedly a recipe for
trouble.
|
| |
|
| |
In Nairobi, student riots, which paralyse its central business
district, are already a regular occurrence. The spark can
be anything from serious political issues like constitutional
reform or government corruption to poor accommodation standards.
|
| |
|
| |
''What's the point?'' asks a disillusioned Charles Otieno
of the education system. ''At the end of it you have a mountain
debt of school fees and a little valued education.'' A degree
programme costs Ksh120,000 or 1,760 dollars a year.
|
| |
|
| |
The introduction of student fees in 1995 followed changes
in donor thinking, as William Saint, a World Bank consultant
on education, explains. ''Fees are a means of increasing university
funding. They make universities more responsive to student
needs by instilling the concepts of students as clients.''
|
| |
|
| |
But things have not worked out as Saint envisaged. This is
because of the mode of funding. The more students an institution
accepts, the more money the government grants, regardless
of whether it can deliver the services its ''clients'' are
paying for. As a result students increasingly feel cheated.
|
| |
|
| |
In other cases, the ''student as client'' theory seems to
have been taken too literally with lecturers being accused
of spending more time with parallel students because they
earn more from them. ''There's antipathy and resentment ...
They hate each other,'' says one anonymous student.
|
| |
|
| |
Others question the government's decision to sink scarce resources
into higher education when millions cannot even afford school.
In Kenya, a paltry 150,000 pupils manage to complete secondary
education each year. Only 5 to 10 percent of secondary school
graduates in sub-Saharan Africa go on to university.
|
| |
|
| |
Where
does this leave Kenya's ambitious students, yearning for a
university education? The African Virtual University (AVU)
-- the first of its kind in sub-Saharan Africa -- set up at
Kenyatta University two years ago could offer a way forward.
|
| |
|
| |
The institution's courses -- in science and computers -- are
transmitted from universities abroad. The AVU has a digital
library that enable users to access thousands of educational
materials on-line from a number of countries.
|
| |
|
| |
''AVU has the potential of revolutionising education in Kenya.
It has a potential that has not yet been exploited,'' says
a former student at the college.
|
| |
|
| |
This article
is free of copyright restrictions and can be reproduced provided
that Inter Press Service is credited. |
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
