Wanted: Urgent reforms in all public universities

Last week’s demand by trade unions for the closure of public universities is impractical and unattainable. Such demands call for careful and systematic deliberations on its impact on current and future students. It could have an adverse effect on the entire education system.

We all witnessed what happened to primary and secondary school children when the basic institution facilities were abruptly closed at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic last year. The Ministry of Education had to come up with a mechanism to revert to the normal calendar after the students spent close to one year at home. This, of course, won’t work with the overcrowded universities.

Should universities be closed for two years as proposed, those with a strong financial muscle will take their children to private institutions. Those with no money will have to keep their children at home. What will these students be engage in for that long? Of course, some of them could end up engaging in criminal activities.

Calls for structural reforms in public universities are not new. This is a conversation that has gone on for a long time. The government has done nothing to salvage the situation. The National Treasury, on its part, chose to reduce university funding in the current financial year. This came amid a gloomy financial outlook, which has been worsened by the ever-growing debts. Most public universities are indebted to the tune of billions of shillings.

The restructuring of public universities should also factor in the concerns of their part-time lecturers. Being a part-time lecturer in a public university in this country is pure torture. You work for years without pay. and no hope of ever being paid in full for your honest toil. Some universities even hold on to the payments for more than five years.

Financial crisis

That notwithstanding, you have to beg to be paid. 

Part-time lecturers are the majority in all the universities and they need to be treated with dignity. They keep the university going by providing quality teaching to the students, who pay for the training. If they pulled out, no university would survive. 

Unfortunately, there is no one to speak on their behalf. When full-time staff meet, they talk of a collective bargaining agreement (CBA). That leaves the part-time lecturers with no one to turn to.

I have been there; I know what it means to be a part-time lecturer in a Kenyan university. 

Proper financial management is another issue that need to be looked into. No student is allowed to sit an exam before clearing their fees. If this is the case, then where does the money go? The government should, therefore, order a proper forensic financial audit on public universities to determine the financial crisis and punish the culprits.

The officials of the University Academic Staff Union (Uasu), Kenya University Staff Union (Kusu) and Kenya Union of Domestic, Hotels, Education Institutions, Hospitals and Allied Workers union (Kudheiha) should ask the government to overhaul the top management of public universities now.

Mr Oduor is a communication lecturer at Tangaza University College. [email protected]