Financial Crisis In Public Universities Should Not Be A Thing To Ignore

By Simon Onyango:

Education is the face of politics, religion, and culture in a country. It nurtures young people to be leaders of tomorrow, to shape a country – more so, the higher learning institutions.
Universities provide the professional training for high-level jobs, it also help in providing with the new knowledge and skills needed to meet the challenges of sustainable development in a community, in raising public awareness and providing preconditions for informed decision-making, responsible behavior and consumer choice.

 
The thing I am trying to drive home is that , a country’s success is defined by the resources or strength it has invested in the education sector. For the last six to seven years, Public Universities have been on their knees due to the fact that the government has failed to pump enough resources to salvage these higher learning institutions.
In 2015, the then auditor general Mr. Edward Ouko, revealed that 11 public universities were facing serious liquidity challenges, a position that’s worsened by the fact that their current liabilities exceeded their current assets.

As we speak now , the number has climbed to 16 (according to the report tabled by Prof. Francis Aduol – Chairman Of Universities Vice Chancellor’s ) and this raises a lot of questions about the quality of services they are offering.
Documents tabled in Parliament last year by University Education PS Simon Nabukwesi showed that of the sh. 167.8 billion requested , only 72.3 billion was allocated.

 
University managers are striving to run these institutions, the accounts of these institutions are being frozen by KRA due to unpaid taxes, university staffs are losing their jobs – if this scenario continues this way , what will happen to the future of this country?
Early last year, the top Ministry of Education and National Treasury Officials, Vice Chancellors and MPs met to find a way of clearing the mess , after the meeting, the officials drafted a 14 – point actions to address this crisis, up to date the plans largely remains on paper, this clearly indicates how government is reluctant to end this mess in Universities.
It is my wish , that the government could move swiftly to salvage the future of this country.